Stockholm - Swedes may get an answer on
Wednesday to the mystery of who shot Social Democrat Prime
Minister Olof Palme when the Swedish prosecutor in charge of the
case presents his conclusions to an investigation that has
lasted 34 years.
Palme was shot dead in central Stockholm in 1986 after a
visit to the cinema with his wife and son. The murder sparked a
massive manhunt and a plethora of conspiracy theories involving
shadowy forces ranging from the CIA and Kurdish separatists to
the South African security services.
While a petty criminal was convicted of Palme's killing, the
judgement was later overturned and the police's failure to
identify the culprit has left a scar on the psyche of a country
that still prides itself on how safe it is to walk its streets.
Palme was prime minister between 1969 and 1976 and between
1982 and 1986. Some hail him as the architect of modern Sweden,
but conservatives hated his anti-colonial views and criticism of
the United States.
So many years after the killing, few Swedes had expected a
resolution of the nation's most high-profile murder case, and
prosecutor Krister Petersson's announcement in February that he
was close to wrapping it up ignited a storm of debate.
He has been tight-lipped since then, but on Wednesday,
Petersson will announce his conclusions at a news conference
that has attracted huge media attention, knocking coronavirus
updates off many newspaper front pages.
A comment by Petersson that he may not be able to bring a
prosecution has been seen as a suggestion that the suspected
killer is already dead.
And naming a suspect may not end put an end to the
conspiracy theories.
"If we get a clear answer, it will mean that one of the
biggest political and judicial mysteries in Sweden has finally
been solved," Gunnar Wall, a journalist who has written several
books about Palme's killing, said.
"If what is put forward now is another uncertain hypothesis
...it will just strengthen the feeling that many people have
that the Swedish justice system does not work very well."