Christer Pettersson

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Painting "Svenska syndabockar" by Markus Andersson (2005)

Carl Gustaf Christer Pettersson (born April 23, 1947 in Solna ; † September 29, 2004 there ) was one of the main suspects in the murder of the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in February 1986.

Life

Shortly before Christmas 1970, Pettersson got into an argument with two men and killed one of them with a bayonet. He was arrested and placed in a closed mental hospital. Less than two years later, he was declared healthy and discharged.

In 1989 Pettersson was found guilty in a Swedish court after an intensive investigation by the Swedish police into the murder of Olof Palme . In the second instance, however, he was acquitted because the investigators had given a tip during the decisive confrontation with the widow Palmes, which pointed to Pettersson. Pettersson then received 300,000 Swedish kronor as compensation . From that point on, he made income selling his story to daily newspapers.

Pettersson died on September 29, 2004 at the age of 57 in Karolinska Sjukhuset in Solna near Stockholm of severe head injuries. He was admitted there 13 days earlier after suffering severe cerebral haemorrhage in a fall.

On February 2, 2007, Pettersson's long-time friend told a journalist for the Aftonbladet newspaper that Pettersson had confessed to her about the murder of Olof Palme. The petty criminal gave his lover as a motive that he had "helped" a friend who wanted to take revenge on Palme as head of government because of tax problems.

Palme's widow was convinced of Pettersson's perpetration until her death in October 2018. In 2018 it became known that the then chief investigator had put witnesses from organized crime under pressure, who then incriminated Pettersson. The prosecutor Krister Petersson, who has been investigating the Palme murder since February 2017, held Christer Pettersson innocent.

On June 10, 2020, 34 years after the crime, the Swedish public prosecutor stated that they had identified a suspect in Stig Engström who they believed to be the murderer. He had died 20 years earlier; the proceedings are therefore terminated.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hannes Lundberg, erssonhannes.l .: Vem var egentligen Christer Pettersson? Retrieved March 3, 2020 (Swedish).
  2. ↑ Lennart Håård: ”Jag sköt Palme” ( Memento from February 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Aftonbladet , February 3, 2007 (Swedish).
  3. ^ André Anwar: Is the Palme homicide squad about to break through? In: Stuttgarter Zeitung , February 28, 2018.
  4. ^ ZEIT ONLINE, AP, tst: Investigations into the murder of Olof Palme are set. In: Zeit Online. June 10, 2020, accessed June 10, 2020 .
  5. ↑ mes, AP, Reuters, dpa: Investigators identify the alleged murderer of Olof Palme after 34 years. In: Spiegel Online. June 10, 2020, accessed June 10, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Pettersson, Christer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish prime suspect in the murder of the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Solna
DATE OF DEATH September 29, 2004
Place of death Solna