The Assassination of Olof Palme

Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot dead in central Stockholm in 1986. Prosecutors closed the investigation in 2020 without a conviction, and the case remains unresolved.

A prime minister without bodyguards

On 28 February 1986, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was walking home from a cinema in central Stockholm with his wife when he was shot. The killer escaped, beginning one of the largest criminal investigations in Swedish history.

A case filled with false starts

Police pursued numerous theories and suspects. Christer Pettersson was convicted in 1989 but acquitted on appeal after the evidence was judged insufficient. Over the following decades, investigators examined extremist groups, foreign intelligence theories and individual suspects.

The 2020 closure

In 2020, chief prosecutor Krister Petersson said the evidence pointed most strongly to Stig Engström, the so-called “Skandia Man,” who had died in 2000. Because Engström could not be prosecuted and the evidence could not be tested at trial, the investigation was closed.

Still unresolved

Later reviews have emphasized that no person has been judicially established as Palme’s killer. In 2025 Swedish prosecutors found no basis to reopen the case, and in 2026 renewed private analysis continued. The assassination therefore remains officially closed as an investigation but unresolved as a criminal case.