Thomas Bodström

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Thomas Bodström

Minister for Justice
In office 2000 – 2006
Preceded by	Laila Freivalds
Succeeded by	Beatrice Ask

Born	April 9, 1962 (age 44) Uppsala, Sweden
Political party	Social Democratic Party
Occupation	politician, lawyer, footballer

Thomas Lennart Bodström was the Swedish Minister for Justice from 2000 to 2006. Since October 2006 he is the chairman of the Riksdags committe for justice.

Thomas Bodström is the son of Lennart Bodström, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs 1982-1985 in the Olof Palme government. In his youth, however, Thomas Bodström was not involved in party politics. Instead, his first brush with media attention came as a football player in AIK, a team in the Premier Division of the Swedish Football league, 1987-1989. In 1990 he graduated from Stockholm University with a Bachelor of Laws degree. After that, he worked as a lawyer for ten years. During his career he took interest in international affairs and in 1999 he joined the board of the Swedish branch of the international organisation Lawyers Without Borders.

However, when Prime Minister Göran Persson announced his new cabinet appointment on October 11, 2000, Bodström was a completely unknown face to most of the political journalists attending the press conference. At the time, he was not even a member of the Social Democratic party. Although Bodström was unaccustomed to national politics at the time, he has managed to keep his job despite calls for his resignation, especially loudly voiced after several high profile prison escapes during the summer of 2004.

After being appointed as Minister for Justice, he was elected to the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag, in the 2002 Swedish parliamentary election. This could be regarded as a purely formal exercise, his seat immediately taken over by a substitute.

He has written a book, 700 dagar i Rosenbad (700 days in Rosenbad), about his experiences as a newcomer in the government.

[edit] Controversy

At the time of his appointment, Bodström revealed in an interview that he had used hashish in his youth and also that he at several occasions had employed a person in his home without paying the appropriate taxes.^[1]

During his term in office, Bodström has been heavily criticised^{[citation needed]} by advocates of privacy as he is said to have worked towards giving the police the possibility of monitoring people that might be involved in minor crimes, as well as other things that can be seen as intrusive to privacy.

The raid of 31 May 2006 on The Pirate Bay ISP PRQ is thought to be largely his doing; as a result he is now the subject of an investigation by the Constitutional Committee. The 'interference' in the independent working of the business of authorities such as the police, called 'ministerstyre' (minister rule), is strictly forbidden in Swedish law. (Former cabinet member Laila Freivalds was also found guilty of 'ministerstyre' and was forced to resign.)