Sweden says 34 year mystery of Palme assassination is solved
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[June 10, 2020]
By Simon Johnson and Niklas Pollard
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Swedish prosecutor
closed the case of the 1986 assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme
on Wednesday, accusing an insurance company graphic designer who died 20
years ago of the country's most notorious unsolved crime.
Palme, who led Sweden's Social Democrats for decades and served two
periods as prime minister, was one of the architects of Scandinavia's
model of a strong welfare state, and a fierce Cold War-era critic of
both the United States and Soviet Union.
He was shot dead in central Stockholm in 1986 after a visit to the
cinema with his wife and son. The failure of the police to find a killer
has sparked decades of conspiracy theories, unlikely to be silenced by
Wednesday's accusation against a long dead suspect with no political
profile.
Prosecutor Krister Petersson, who has led an investigation into the case
since 2017, said the killer was Stig Engstrom, a suspect long known to
Swedes as "Skandia man" after the company where he worked, with offices
near the scene of the shooting.
Engstrom, known to have been at the scene, was repeatedly questioned in
early investigations but dismissed as a serious suspect at the time. He
died in 2000 in what Swedish media reported as a suspected suicide.
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A 2018 book by an investigative journalist brought to light a range of
previously overlooked evidence, including time stamps showing Engstrom
had left his office earlier than he had told police, in time to commit
the crime.
"Because the person is dead, I cannot bring charges against him and have
decided to close the investigation," Petersson said.
He did not announce any major investigative breakthroughs, and said the
technical evidence was not new. He felt confident the evidence would
have been sufficient to arrest Engstrom, but "would not, in itself, lead
to a conviction" without more evidence that it was no longer possible to
obtain.
Palme's son, Marten, told public service radio he also believed Engstrom
was the killer, "but unfortunately there is no real conclusive
evidence".
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![](../images/061020PIX/news_n25.jpg)
Stig Engstrom, known as Skandia-man, gestures outside Skandias
office in Stockholm, Sweden April 7, 1986. TT News Agency/Goran
Arnback via REUTERS
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COLD-WAR CRITIC
Palme was prime minister from 1969-1976 and again from 1982-1986.
Supporters hail him as the architect of modern Sweden, while
conservatives denounced his anti-colonialist views and criticism of
the United States.
For decades, conspiracy theories around his killing have blamed a
range of forces, from the CIA and Kurdish separatists to the South
African security services.
Petersson said several witness accounts of the likely killer were in
line with Engstrom's appearance, while witnesses also contradicted
Engstrom's account of his movements at the scene.
Engstrom's family have repeatedly dismissed accusations that he was
the killer. Daily Expressen quoted his ex-wife as saying in an
interview in February that he was too timid to have carried out the
murder. A childhood friend, Olle Madebrink, told the paper Engstrom
was "the most normal person in the world. I can't believe anything
else."
Reuters was unable to immediately reach members of Engstrom's
family.
(Reporting by Simon Johnson, Johan Ahlander, Niklas Pollard and
Johannes Hellstrom; Editing by Peter Graff)
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