Pelle Svensson

Wrestling career

Svensson, who started his career in wrestling in 1955, competed for the clubs Sundsvalls AIK and Heby BK. He won the Swedish Championships for the first time in 1962, competing in the 100 kg class. He won the Swedish Championships for thirteen consecutive years until his retirement in 1974. He competed at the World Championships for the first time in 1963, ending up fourth. At the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, Svensson won a silver medal in the light heavyweight class. He also won two gold medals at the European Championships in 1969 and 1970 and two gold medals at the World Championships in 1970 and 1971, as well as three bronze medals at the European Championships in 1966, 1967, and 1968. As a wrestler he was nicknamed Pelle Swing in Sweden.^[1][2]

Svensson was chairman of the Swedish Wrestling Federation (Swedish: Svenska Brottningsförbundet) from 1993 to 1998, and a member of the board of the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA) from 1990 to 2007. Svensson left his position as a member of the board of the FILA in protest of what he saw as a lack of willingness on the part of the FILA to fight corruption within the sport.^[2][4]

Legal career

Following his career in wrestling, Svensson pursued a career as a lawyer. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Uppsala University in 1970 and a Candidate of Law degree in 1973. He was employed at Lindstedts law firm in Sundsvall in 1977 and had his own law firm from 1989. He became a member of the Swedish Bar Association in 1980.^[3]

Svensson was noted for taking on several high-profile criminal cases. He first received attention when he filed a civil suit against a suspected murderer in the case of the disappearance of an eleven-year-old boy north of Sundsvall in 1980 (known in Sweden as Johanfallet [sv], "the Johan Case"), together with the parents of the boy. The case ultimately ended in loss in the court of appeal, which ordered the parents to pay the court costs, and Svensson was criticized and accused of taking the case in order to receive media attention.

In 1988, Svensson served as the defense attorney for Juha Valjakkala, who was later convicted of the murder of three people in the village of Åmsele (known in Sweden as Åmselemorden, "the Åmsele Murders") earlier in the same year. In 2005 he wrote the book Utan nåd : grymhet utan gräns ("Without Mercy – Cruelty Beyond Limit") about the case.

Svensson also served as the defense attorney to Lars Tingström [sv; fr; no] (known in Sweden by the nickname Bombmannen, "the Bomb-Man"), who was later convicted of three bomb attacks around Stockholm. In 1996, Svensson published parts of what he said was a testament authored by Tingström shortly before his death in 1993. In the purported testament, Tingström wrote that he had given Christer Pettersson the instructions to assassinate Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. The journalist Gunnar Wall [sv] wrote an article in Dagens Nyheter where he accused Svensson of manipulating the testament from Tingström. A forensic investigation later proved the testament to be real. Svensson's information led the prosecutors to file an application for a new trial against Pettersson for the assassination of Palme, but this was rejected by the Supreme Court.

Svensson ended his career as a lawyer after occupational burnout, but continued to take cases after his retirement.^[2]