Jaan Laaman

Jaan Karl Laaman (born 1948) was a member of the United Freedom Front.

He grew up in Roxbury, Massachusetts and Buffalo, New York. His family emigrated to the United States from Estonia when he was a child. He has a son. He is currently serving a 53-year prison sentence for his role in the bombings of United States government buildings while a member of the United Freedom Front, an American leftist group in the 1980s.

Laaman was sentenced for breaking and entering in New York and was sent to prison.

Under a special University of New Hampshire program to bring former prisoners to the university, facilitated by popular Education Professor Carlton Menge, Laaman entered the University of New Hampshire.

In the 1960s, Laaman worked in Students for a Democratic Society and community organizations and advocated against the Vietnam War and racism. As a student at the University of New Hampshire he was a leader in the SDS. He was also a leader in the student strike in May 1970 in reaction to the Bombing of Cambodia and the massacre of protesting students as Kent State University and Jackson State College. He facilitated youth development in the Black Panther Party and the Puerto Rican Young Lords street gang.

In Attica Prison. His cellmate for a time had been Sam Melville. The Attica prison riot in 1971 and the death of Sam Melville, according to Lamaan targeted for execution by the state police, contributed to Laaman's further radicalization.

In 1972 he was arrested and charged with bombing a Richard Nixon re-election headquarters building and a police station in New Hampshire and was sentenced to 20 years. However, he was released in 1978.

...
Wikipedia