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PALME

World press reflects on Palme murder

While Sweden's fascination with the murder of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme on February 28th 1986 is not fading with time, a wave of articles and TV and radio reports around the world this week show that the global interest is still alive too.

Published: 27 February 2006 17:50 CET

Both the New York Times and the Washington Post web sites carried front page articles on the unsolved crime by news agency AP on Monday, and Sunday’s news programme on Norwegian television contained a five minute piece on Palme from the channel’s Stockholm correspondent. It included an interview with Palme’s son, Mårten.

Mårten Palme has also appeared in other international media, expressing the family’s view that Christer Pettersson was responsible and that they have tried to put the murder behind them.

The French news agency AFP was the first to report on the murder internationally twenty years ago. Their Swedish correspondent had worked late in the editorial office and was able to transmit a bulletin based on TT’s reports to the rest of the world.

Palme is the only western European head of government to be murdered since the World War II. The fact that the crime has still not been solved, at least not officially, continues to perplex not only Swedes but the rest of the world.

Norwegian newspapers have followed closely the theories that have emerged in recent days, while Finland’s largest newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, has several articles on the murder and its background.

La Republica, one of Italy’s largest papers, has covered the anniversary Vatican Radio will broadcast an item on the twentieth anniversary.

The main themes in the international reporting of the anniversary have been the dismay in Sweden, the police’s inability to solve the murder, the mystery around Christer Pettersson’s guilt and Olof Palme’s political legacy.

RA

‘Super cop’ takes on Palme murder probe

A detective who has solved several high-profile murder cases in Sweden will take over the investigation into the assassination of former PM, Olof Palme.

Published: 31 December 2012 11:30 CET
'Super cop' takes on Palme murder probe

Detective Superintendent Dag Andersson will take up the position as the Palme Group’s investigation leader in the new year, newspaper Expressen reports.

Andersson has worked for the National Murder Commission (Riksmordkommisionen) since 1989 and has been involved in several high-profile investigations, including the 2003 murder of the Social Democrat politician, Anna Lindh.

In the past two years Andersson has worked on the investigation into serial sniper Peter Mangs in Malmö.

“This is the biggest investigation we have in this country. There is an incredibly amount of information to take in,” Andersson said about the Palme murder probe.

Hans Melander, the current investigation leader will remain as head of the Palme Group.

A three-part documentary series about Olof Palme aired between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The series A Pilgrim’s Death, which is based on Leif GW Persson’s trilogy about the Palme murder, will air in January 2013.

“As soon as something happens around Palme – if a new film or book or newspaper article come out – we see a surge in tips from the public,” said Melander.

He did not want to go into detail about which leads the Palme Group is pursuing now but mentioned that investigators “are looking into this thing about Rausing”.

Billionairess Eva Rausing, who died from drug abuse in July, had claimed that she knew who murdered Palme, according to documents found on a computer in her London home.

Olof Palme, a former Social Democrat prime minister, was gunned down by an unapprehended assailant on a street in central Stockholm in February 1986. At least 130 people have confessed to the murder.

Andersson will be the seventh investigation leader of the Palme Group since 1986.

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