Ebbe Carlsson affair

rdf:langString Ebbe Carlsson affair

rdf:langString The Ebbe Carlsson affair (Swedish: Ebbe Carlsson-affären) was a major political scandal in Sweden occurring during mid-1988. The affair came to public knowledge on 1 June 1988, when the evening newspaper Expressen revealed that Ebbe Carlsson, a journalist and publisher and former secretary at the Swedish government, was carrying out an independent and illegal investigation into the assassination of prime minister Olof Palme, secretly supported by the minister for justice Anna-Greta Leijon. The scandal forced Leijon to resign a week later, and was finally concluded with Carlsson, by then dying with AIDS, being fined for smuggling in 1992. Long before it landed in criminal court, however, an investigation of his role was launched by the constitutional committee of the parliament, its hearings broadcast live on Sveriges Television, the public television service. The matter became embarrassing to the government, appearing to expose an "old boys culture" encompassing people both in the senior ranks of the Social Democratic Party and in the police, and careless handling in highly sensitive police work.