As probe into 1986 murder of Swedish PM closes, colleague says: 'This can end, finally'

Transcript

A friend and colleague of the late Olof Palme is breathing a sigh of relief as the cold case investigation into the murder of the former Swedish prime minister finally wraps up after 34 years. 

Prosecutor Krister Petersson, who led the investigation into the assassination since 2017, closed the case on Wednesday, accusing a graphic designer who died two decades ago of the country's most notorious unsolved crime.

Palme, who led Sweden's Social Democrats for decades, was shot dead in central Stockholm in 1986 after going to a movie with his family. 

Petersson said his team believes the killer was Stig Engstrom, a man who was repeatedly questioned in early investigations but dismissed as a serious suspect. He died in 2000 in what Swedish media reported as a suspected suicide.

Swedish diplomat Pierre Schori served in Palme's government and is the chairman of the Olof Palme Memorial Fund. Here is part of his conversation with As It Happens host Carol Off. 

What does it mean to you, 34 years later, to see Olof Palme's murder possibly solved?

It's, of course, a huge relief because we have been living with this, just like the Americans with JFK, in a mystery. 

I have complete confidence in this new team who took over three years ago and went through 30 years of documents and witnesses, testimonies, et cetera.

They discovered witnesses who ... who were ignored, but really saw things at the place of the murder. And they also discovered that ... the guy they have fingered ... the police didn't think about him at all after first the conversation with him because they were obsessed at a time with a different lead, namely the PKK, a Turkish national liberation movement.

What is it about Olof Palme that immediately led police to believe that he was assassinated by someone from outside the country?

Because we are not used to that kind of crime and violence.

And also, of course … his standing up for human rights all over the world, daring to confront also the United States and the Soviet Union when they waged war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam, and standing up against Apartheid and dictatorships.

Of course he had enemies, but many more friends, including [then-Canadian prime minister] Pierre Trudeau. 

So, of course,  it was reasonable to think that it must be some kind of foreign alien force behind this.

He kept repeating the idea that you must have peace at home to get peace in the world.- Pierre Schori, Swedish diplomat 

In the '80s, when this happened, it was just so disturbing because, as you point out, he was so outspoken against what was happening in the Soviet Union, but also in the United States with [Chilean] General [Augusto] Pinochet. With international events, he was outspoken. And how is it received in Sweden? What was the response, I guess even to this day, to the assassination of Olof Palme?

The overwhelming majority of people were behind him. He was a successful prime minister for many years, for nine years. 

He really delivered a message, a narrative, every time he spoke, and he spoke almost every day. He kept repeating the idea that you must have peace at home to get peace in the world. There is a link to how you deal with people here and in the world. You must have social justice, equity and human rights here and abroad. And therefore, peace for us would mean there must be peace in the world too.

So he was very much respected. But he had also, of course, a small group of fanatics who are really ... the hate-mongers type, who use all kinds of dirty methods to attack him.

That, today, gets me to think about how hate media is working today, how dangerous it is when you can make it a million times stronger ... with social media. So it's a warning in a way [about] how hatred can spill over and become violent action.

But in the end, what we've learned, and if the prosecutors are right, is that it wasn't an international conspiracy, a foreign agent. It was a man, a Swede, a graphic designer at an insurance company, Stig Engstrom, who is now fingered as the person who assassinated Olof Palme. Why do you think prosecutors didn't ever consider him until quite recently?

Because the first team there was obsessed by the foreign lead, the PKK, as I mentioned. And they just ignored him and others that we also suggested might be looked into. And so he was just put aside.

The new team, now, they dug out ... the first [interview] they did with this guy with Engstrom, and it shows that there are so many things that they missed, and also from several witnesses at the time who really could more or less finger him by his clothes.

So what the present team has done is just to clarify who would be the suspect here. And they say ... this case could have been solved in April of 1986 if they have just looked into the material, which they have now gone through. So it's a tragedy that it developed like that.

But this guy, he was very much involved in anti-Palme groups, and they were vitriolic at the time.

This man is not able to be prosecuted because he killed himself in 2000. But his wife, his ex wife, says that she doesn't believe it, that he wouldn't have done something like that. How confident are you that this is the man, that prosecutors have actually now found the right person?

I listened intensely to the presentation of the case today. It took one hour and 45 minutes, and it was a convincing case for me. And I have also confidence in this new group because they also interviewed me twice. I understood they are very thorough. They wanted really to turn any stone over to investigate all kinds of ideas and clues and so on. So it's a very competent, professional job they have done. And I don't think that anybody questions that this is a good job showing that here is the main suspect.

But of course, this team, they are not a court. It would have gone to court, of course. But I think the overwhelming majority will say that they will accept this and they will also think that now this can end, finally.

This was often considered to be the moment Sweden lost its innocence, when it was possible that this horrible crime like this could happen in your own capital. So how are people responding in Sweden?

I think that people would not say today, "Palme should not have done this. He shouldn't have said that."

We were and are very proud that he stood up. He gave voice to the voiceless, to the oppressed. 

They are proud of him and what he stood for and what he meant also for Sweden. With all the reforms he introduced in Sweden when he became prime minister, promoting the rights of women here, abortion rights, the situation of children, labour laws, the environment, you name it.

Written by Sheena Goodyear with files from Reuters. Interview produced by Sarah Jackson and Jeanne Armstrong. Edited for length and clarity.