Assassination of Olof Palme — February 1986 murder of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme
The unsolved assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986 shocked Sweden and left a decades-long unresolved murder investigation.
Key Facts
- Date and time
- 28 February 1986, 23:21 CET
- Location
- Sveavägen, central Stockholm
- Weapon
- Single gunshot (fatal)
- Conviction overturned
- Christer Pettersson acquitted on appeal, 1988
- Investigation closed
- 10 June 2020, no prosecution possible
- Main suspect named
- Stig Engström ('Skandia Man'), died 2000
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Olof Palme, Sweden's Social Democratic Prime Minister, had accumulated numerous political enemies both domestically and internationally due to his outspoken foreign policy positions. On the evening of 28 February 1986, he and his wife Lisbeth walked home from a Stockholm cinema without bodyguards, leaving him vulnerable to attack.
At 23:21 CET on 28 February 1986, Palme was shot once at close range on Sveavägen in central Stockholm and died of his wounds. His wife Lisbeth was slightly wounded by a second shot. No bodyguards were present. The killing shocked Sweden and immediately triggered one of the country's largest criminal investigations.
The murder remained officially unsolved for decades. A conviction against Christer Pettersson was overturned on appeal. In 2020, authorities named the deceased Stig Engström as the most likely suspect and closed the investigation, though the designation was widely criticised. A December 2025 announcement removed Engström as the main suspect without reopening the case.
Political Outcome
Prime Minister Palme was assassinated; no perpetrator was ever successfully prosecuted. The investigation was officially closed in 2020 without a definitive legal resolution.
Olof Palme serving as Prime Minister of Sweden
Palme killed; Sweden enters prolonged political and judicial uncertainty over the unsolved assassination