[Ppnews] Ray Luc Levasseur denied permission to travel to Amherst

[Political Prisoner News]

Convicted terrorist (sic) Ray Luc Levasseur 
denied permission by parole commission to travel to Amherst



By <http://connect.masslive.com/user/dlederman/index.html>Diane Lederman



November 11, 2009, 4:17PM

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/convicted_terrorist_raymond_lu.html

Convicted terrorist (sic) Ray Luc Levasseur has 
been denied permission by the U.S. Parole 
Commission to leave Maine to address a forum at 
the University of Amherst in Massachusetts 
Thursday night.This is a 5:23 p.m. update of a 
story posted at 4:17 this afternoon.

AMHERST – After all the controversy and protests 
and counter-protest, convicted bomber Raymond Luc 
Levasseur will not be coming to campus Thursday 
night because the parole commission has denied him permission to travel.

The forum he was to be a part of called “The 
Great Western Massachusetts Sedition Trial: 
Twenty Years Later,” however, will take place at 
the University of Massachusetts Isenberg School 
of Management, Room 137. Participants will 
include sedition trial defendant Pat Levasseur, 
Levasseur’s ex-wife, members of the 1989 
Springfield sedition trial legal defense team, and a juror from the trial.

Ray Levasseur was a leader of the United Freedom 
Front, a group that was charged with eight 
Boston-area bombings between 1976 and 1979, the 
murder of a New Jersey state trooper, the 
attempted murder of a Massachusetts state 
trooper, several other assaults on law 
enforcement officers, and several armed bank 
robberies. Levasseur was not at the scene of the 
trooper’s shooting and never charged. The 
bombings were carried out to protest the United 
States’ backing of South Africa’s racist 
apartheid regime and Central American right-wing 
death-squads. He spent 20 years in prison.

UMass Amherst Libraries’ Department of Special 
Collections and University Archives initially 
invited him to speak as part of the fifth annual 
Colloquium on Social Change, but his appearance 
was canceled after the department received angry 
of angry calls and complaints.

A group of faculty from the social thought and 
political economy program led by Sara Lennox and 
faculty from five other departments and three 
student groups then invited Levasseur back to campus.

The cancellation of the talk drew wide-spread protest and letters.

The new invitation angered Gov. Deval L. Patrick, 
UMass President Jack M. Wilson and campus administration as well as police.

Levasseur, who was released from prison in 2004, 
said Wednesday that he was up front with his 
parole officer about the invitation and was 
initially given permission to attend. He usually 
gets permission for travel from his Maine parole 
officer but “they felt for whatever reason, 
parole officers wanted clearance from the regional commission.”

He said he has been able to travel out of state 
before but didn’t want to speculate on “what 
motivated the commission” to reverse its 
decision. He said the event would still happen 
and that there would be surprises. The university 
was looking into possibly having a conversation with him in another way.

More details in The Republican.




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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