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Assassination of Olof Palme (Stockholm, 1986)

COLDSveavägen, Stockholm, Sweden0:41

Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot dead on a Stockholm street on 28 February 1986 while walking home with his wife; despite one conviction later overturned on appeal and a 2020 prosecutorial conclusion naming a deceased suspect, the case remains legally unsolved and was closed in 2020, with the main suspect's designation later withdrawn in 2025. In 2020, prosecutors named a suspect who had been dead for 20 years, and closed the case. Sweden never got a verdict. Send this to someone from Stockholm.

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Narrated from the published, cited case file. The sources are on the case page. How we make these videos.

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Sweden's prime minister was shot dead walking home. Stockholm, 1986. Olof Palme had no bodyguards that night. Just his wife, Lisbeth, leaving the cinema. A gunman shot him at close range, wounded Lisbeth, and disappeared. Police recovered two bullets. The gun was never found. A man was convicted, then acquitted on appeal. In 2020, prosecutors named a suspect who had been dead for 20 years, and closed the case. Sweden never got a verdict. The file is closed, the case unsolved. Should Sweden reopen it? The full case file is on casepin dot org.

Transcript from the video’s narration track. For every source, open the case file.

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