Netflix faces lawsuit over The Unlikely Murder series about Swedish PM Olof Palme’s death
- The show implicates Stig Engstrom, a vocal critic of Palme, as the main suspect in the unsolved killing
- A claim submitted to Sweden’s Chancellor of Justice argues that the portrayal of Engstrom as the gunman constitutes ‘a crystal clear case of defamation’
Streaming service Netflix faces a defamation lawsuit in Sweden over its drama series The Unlikely Murderer, which implicates the main suspect in the unsolved 1986 murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, legal documents showed Tuesday.
A claim submitted to Sweden’s Chancellor of Justice which prosecutes freedom of expression cases, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, argues that the portrayal of former advertising consultant Stig Engstrom as the gunman constitutes “a crystal clear case of defamation”.
Engstrom, who was known for his staunch opposition to Palme’s left-wing policies and who died in 2000, was in June 2020 named as the main suspect in the case that has gripped the Scandinavian country for more than three decades.
But chief prosecutor Krister Petersson said that because Engstrom was dead, no charges could be pressed and the case was closed.
Palme was gunned down on the evening of February 28, 1986, after leaving a Stockholm cinema with his wife, having dismissed his bodyguards for the evening.
He was shot in the back by his assailant, who fled the scene and left the 59-year-old to die in a pool of blood on the pavement.
Engstrom presented himself to police as a witness early on in the investigation.