Lennart Geijer

Lennart Geijer
Minister for Justice
In office
14 October 1969  8 October 1976
Prime Minister Olof Palme
Preceded by Herman Kling
Succeeded by Sven Romanus
Personal details
Born Johan Lennart Geijer
(1909-09-14)14 September 1909
Ystad, Sweden
Died 16 June 1999(1999-06-16) (aged 89)
Stockholm, Sweden
Political party Social Democratic Party
Occupation politician, lawyer

Johan Lennart Geijer (14 September 1909 – 16 June 1999), was a Swedish politician and lawyer.[1] He was the son of postmaster Åke Geijer and Anna Sylvan.

He is mainly remembered for his role in the Geijer Scandal (Swedish: Geijeraffären).

Biography

Lennart Geijer studied at Lund University, and became Candidate of Law in 1933. After two years of service he got a leading position at Hyresgästföreningen. He was minister 1966-76, minister without portfolio 1966-69 and Minister of Justice 1969-76.

Geijer strove during his tenure as minister to reduce the use of imprisonment and to make imprisonment more humane and focused on care and rehabilitation. These policy goals made him admired by the Swedish left- wing as an progressive champion of the weak and dispossed in the Swedish society. The same policy goals made right- wingers, and officials in the Swedish police,. on the other hand, to regard him as too naive and permissive towards criminal disorder.

Geijer was Swedish Minister of Justice during the occupation of the West German Embassy in Stockholm in 1975, when Holger Meins's commando, of the armed left extremist organization Red Army Faction (RAF) took the West German Embassy in Skarpö Street in Gärdet in Stockholm. During the drama Geijer negotiated with the terrorists in the embassy building.

The Geijer scandal

Geijer was one of those involved in the political scandal known as the Geijer Scandal in the 1970s, which involved exploitation of prostitutes organized by the brothel madam Doris Hopp. The scandal has been the subject of prostitute and criminal Lillemor Östlin's autobiography Hinsehäxan (2005) as well as journalist Peter Bratt's memoirs Med rent uppsåt (2007)[2] and the movie Call Girl by Swedish director Mikael Marcimain (2012).

References

  1. "Lennart Geijer". Nationalencyklopedin (in Swedish). Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  2. "Politicians named in prostitution scandal". The Local. 5 December 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
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