Who killed Swedish PM Olof Palme? Probe into 34-year-old unsolved murder enters final stage
- Palme was killed in February 1986 outside a cinema in Stockholm. An early conviction was overturned and the case has remained unsolved since
- He infuriated Washington with his vocal opposition to the US war in Vietnam, and also backed communist governments in Cuba and Nicaragua
The investigation into the unsolved 1986 murder of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme will wrap up within months, the prosecutor in charge said Wednesday, signalling the last phase of a mystery that has gripped the country for decades.
Prosecutors will “either press charges or close the investigation”, said Krister Petersson, who leads the probe, adding that they would most likely announce a decision by the end of June.
Palme was killed on February 28, 1986, after leaving a Stockholm cinema with his wife Lisbet to walk home, having dismissed his bodyguards for the evening.
An unidentified attacker approached the couple and shot Palme in the back and fled, leaving the 59-year-old dying in a pool of blood on the sidewalk.
On the 30th anniversary of the crime, current Prime Minister Stefan Lofven called the unsolved murder an “open wound”.
“I think the whole country and, of course, the family want to see a resolution,” Lofven told newspaper Aftonbladet on Wednesday. “We’ve been searching for it for so long.”