| Coruscant_Journal | Date: Sunday, 31 Mar 2013, 10:38 PM | Message # 1 |
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Tomson Escapes from Sector Rangers
Agriworld-2079, Mid Rim — A small crowd of M'shinni and Skrilling supporters of anti-Imperial activist Royce Tomson have clashed with Imperial Sector Rangers at a gathering to listen to Tomson, the writer and former Senator of Commenor, speak. Blows were exchanged with the Rangers as they attempted to arrest Mr. Tomson, who escaped. It is the fourth confirmed sighting in recent weeks of Tomson, who is wanted for sedition, but the first time one of his anti-Imperial speeches was interrupted by authorities.
Mr. Tomson—who is known to appear in public squares, pubs, and other meeting places on secluded Outer Rim worlds to make speeches critical of the Empire, only to disappear before authorities arrive—told M'shinni and Skrilling gatherers on Agriworld-2079 that he represented the so-called "Ruusan Reformation League," believed to be an armed, anti-Imperial resistance group. In his remarks, Tomson reportedly criticized the Empire's control of M'shinni trade and appealed to the Skrilling desire for the independence of Agriworld-2079, urging the crowd to join his "Ruusan League" and fight the Empire.
A pair of Imperial Sector Rangers interrupted the speech and announced that Mr. Tomson was under arrest, at which point members of the crowd stood in the way of the Rangers, who used stun batons to beat them aside. In the confusion, Tomson and a handful of his supporters disappeared. Several M'shinni and Skrilling were detained by authorities, but later released as the Rangers were reportedly unable to distinguish one of them from another.
Tomson is believed to be in a nearby system in the M'shinni sector, and the Imperial Sector Rangers are appealing to the public to report any sightings. The extent of the "Ruusan League" and its forces is not known.
Royce Tomson was a writer of popular, political fiction in the post-war era and later a publishing mogul on Commenor prior to being elected the planet's Senator. Three years ago, at the end of his term in the Senate, Tomson wrote a series of anti-Imperial essays; one of them was critical of the Empire's treatment of clone veterans of the war, another referred to the Battle of Renatasia—in which thousands of Imperial troops were killed along with 2/3rds of the Renatasian population—as a "genocide." The Empire declared Tomson's writing to be seditious, and he has been on the run since.
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