Johan Lennart Geijer (14 September 1909 – 16 June 1999) was a Swedish politician and lawyer. He is mainly remembered for his role in the Geijer affair and for being the
Minister for Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry.
Lists of current ministries of justice
Named "Ministry"
* Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia)
* Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan)
* Ministry of Just ...
Geijer was born on 14 September 1909 in Ystad, Sweden, the son of Åke Geijer, a postmaster, and his wife Anna Sylvan. He came from a bourgeois family in Ystad, but was radicalized in the early 1930s, when he studied law in
Lund
Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...
and lived with Waldemar Bülow, August Strindberg's old friend. Geijer passed '' studentexamen'' in Karlskrona in 1928. During the years of study in Lund in the late 1920s, early 1930s, he was a member of the Swedish Clarté League and had contacts with radicals in Lund at the time, not least Tage Erlander. Geijer's radicalism changed into a more explicitly socialist direction. He received a Candidate of Law from
Lund University
, motto = Ad utrumque
, mottoeng = Prepared for both
, established =
, type = Public research university
, budget = SEK 9 billion Licentiate of Laws in 1957 and
Juris Doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...
in 1958.
Career
Geijer did his clerkship in Vemmenhögs, Ljunits and Herrestad's hundred judicial district from 1933 to 1935. He was the head of Hyresgästföreningen's legal bureau in 1936 and ombudsman at the
Swedish Union of Clerical and Technical Employees in Industry
The Swedish Union of Clerical and Technical Employees in Industry (Sif, formerly ''Svenska Industritjänstemannaförbundet'') was the largest trade union for white-collar workers in Sweden.
Founded on 21 June 1920 at a conference in Jönköping, ...
from 1939 to 1957 and lawyer at the
Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees
The Confederation of Professional Employees ( sv, Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation, TCO) is a national trade union centre, the umbrella organisation for 13 trade unions in Sweden that organise professional and other qualified employees in both ...
1957 to 1966.
He was then minister without portfolio from 1966 to 1969 and Minister of Justice from 1969 to 1976. Geijer was known as an independent and liberal ("bizarre weirdo" according to some government colleagues) and distrusted deeply the imprisonment educational effect. In February 1975 Geijer said in an interview in '' Aftonbladet'' that “In the future, the prison sentence shall be something very unusual in Sweden. It is not human to deprive people of freedom”. Geijer was throughout his time as minister in conflict with the National Police CommissionerCarl Persson, relying rather on
Säpo
The Swedish Security Service ( sv, Säkerhetspolisen , abbreviated SÄPO ; until 1989 ''Rikspolisstyrelsens säkerhetsavdelning'', abbreviated RPS/Säk) is a Sweden, Swedish Government agencies in Sweden, government agency organised under the M ...
IB affair
The IB affair ( sv, IB-affären) was the exposure of illegal surveillance operations by the IB secret Swedish intelligence agency within the Swedish Armed Forces. The two main purposes of the agency were to handle liaison with foreign intellig ...
and the Hospital spy affair in Gothenburg - instead his ministerial colleague
Carl Lidbom
Carl Gunnar Lidbom (2 March 1926 – 26 July 2004) was a Swedish jurist. He served as Minister of Commerce and Industry from 1975 and 1976 and as Ambassador of Sweden to France from 1982 to 1992. During his time in the Government Offices, he work ...
was blamed.
The author Ulf Bjereld describes Geijer in his book ''Och jag är fri'' (2015) as a willful leftist who wanted to demolish all prisons and fought for stronger labour law and free
abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...
. Carl Persson was not as inclined to let the prisoners free, which exacerbated an already tense relationship with the Minister of Justice. Geijer was on the whole quite controversial, including through the sexual crimes investigation which suggested a loosening of the concept of rape, prompting
Maria-Pia Boëthius
Maria-Pia Boëthius (born 1947) is a Swedish journalist, novelist, non-fiction writer and activist. She worked as a journalist for the newspaper ''Expressen'' from 1968 to 1978. Among her books are ''Skylla sig själv'' from 1976 (on rape), ''Heder ...
Geijer was involved in the political scandal known as the Geijer affair in the 1970s, which involved exploitation of prostitutes organized by the brothel madam Doris Hopp. In a secret 1976 memorandum, National Police Commissioner Carl Persson urged Prime Minister
Olof Palme
Sven Olof Joachim Palme (; ; 30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and 1982 to 1986. Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until ...
to let investigate whether, and to what degree, Geijer could be a security risk because of alleged contacts with prostitutes from the Eastern Bloc. In November 1977, just over a year after Geijer had left his position as Minister of Justice, the existence of the memorandum was revealed by Peter Bratt in ''
Dagens Nyheter
''Dagens Nyheter'' (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record.
History and profile
' ...
''. The affair 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) and the movie '' Call Girl'' (2012) by Swedish director Mikael Marcimain.
Assignments
Geijer's assignments:
*Member of the Rental Tribunal (''Hyresnämnden'') from 1942 to 1951
*Substitute in the Rental Council (''Hyresrådet'') in 1952
*Member of the 1945 Committee Concerning the Right to Employees' Inventions
*Member of the Board of the Tenants Association (''Hyresgästföreningsstyrelsen'') in Stockholm from 1947 to 1967 (chairman 1954-67)
*Member of the Board for Employee Inventions from 1950 to 1966
*Member of the 1952 Customs Tariff Committee
*Member of the board of the Swedish Labour Law Association (''Arbetsrättsliga föreningen'') in 1954
*Member of the 1958 Investigation Regarding the Revision of the Law on the Right to Employee Inventions
*Member of the 1960 Vacation Committee
*Member of the 1960 Housing Committee
*Member of the 1960 Rent Regulation
*Member of the 1962 Housing Investigation
*Member of the 1962 Employment Psychological Investigation
*Member of the Council of Europe's Swedish delegation from 1964 to 1966 (chairman 1966)
*Board member of the Swedish Inventions Bureau (''Svenska uppfinnarekontoret'') in 1959
*Board member of the
Statistics Sweden
Statistics Sweden ( sv, Statistiska centralbyrån ; SCB) is the Swedish government agency operating under the Ministry of Finance and responsible for producing official statistics for decision-making, debate and research. The agency's responsibi ...
He was married 1934 to 1942 with Ulla Körner (born 1913), the daughter of rector Harald Körner and Ebba Hansen. In 1944 Geijer married Ninnie Löfgren (born 1915), the daughter of music director Albin Löfgren and Jenny Andersson. In his first marriage he was the father of Ann-Charlotte (born 1935), Agneta (born 1940) and in his second marriage he was the father of Christoffer (born 1944) and Bengt Johan (born 1945).