Conference turris::scandia

Associated Press Wed 19-MAR-1986 17:56                                  Palme

                        Suspect in Palme case released
    
                              By CECILIA LONNELL
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - A 32-year-old Swede arrested as a suspect in
    the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme was released Wednesday
    and taken under guard to a secret location, police said. No formal
    charges had been brought against him. 
    
    Arraignment had been scheduled for Thursday, and police had arranged
    for it to be conducted at Stockholm police headquarters instead of the
    courthouse after telephone callers threatened the suspect's life. 
    
    Authorities decided to free the man after a second confrontation with a
    witness Wednesday afternoon failed "to give what we had hoped,"
    Stockholm police commissioner Hans Holmer said. He would not elaborate,
    but said "an important link in the chain of circumstantial evidence has
    broken." When asked whether the man has been cleared of suspicion,
    Holmer replied: "No comment." 
    
    According to Swedish law, police need a court's permission to hold a
    suspect for more than five days. The man was detained March 12, and on
    Monday Stockholm prosecutor K.G. Svensson filed a request saying there
    were "probable reasons" to suspect the man of "complicity in the murder
    as perpetrator." The authorities never said whether the man was
    suspected of firing the shot that killed Palme or of assisting the
    actual assassin. 
    
    A second man arrested in connection with the case two days ago also was
    released Wednesday and has been "dismissed from the investigation,"
    Holmer said. His comment was the first word that a second person had
    been arrested. Holmer said the two men were acquainted, but refused to
    say whether they belonged to the same political organization. 
    
    According to a variety of reports here, the suspect belonged to a
    number of ultra-religious and right-wing splinter groups, including a
    small anti-communist group known as the European Labor Party.  Two of
    the groups bitterly opposed the 59-year-old Palme, a Social Democrat
    who was shot to death Feb. 28 as he walked with his wife, Lisbet, along
    a Stockholm street. 
    
    The name of the man arrested March 12 has not been widely published in
    Sweden because of libel laws, although at least three Swedish papers
    published his photograph while he was in custody. European Labor Party
    spokesman Michael Ericson identified him as Viktor Gunnarsson. Ericson
    said the party cut all ties with Gunnarsson "after noticing some
    unbalanced features." 
    
    Stockholm police searched 35 blocks in central Stockholm near the
    murder scene Wednesday, looking for evidence and new witnesses, Holmer
    said. 
         

Associated Press Mon 24-MAR-1986 20:28                                  Palme

                  Police Release Second Photo in Palme Case
    
                               By KENNETH JAUTZ
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Police released a composite photograph Monday
    of a second man wanted in the assassination of Prime Minister Olof
    Palme nearly a month ago. It shows a large, blond man police said could
    have been an accomplice of the man who shot Palme to death Feb. 28 on a
    downtown street in Stockholm. 
    
    The Swedish news agency said an employee of a hotel in the the city's
    central district told police a man resembling the photograph stayed
    there until shortly before Palme was killed. Police Commissioner Hans
    Holmer said the picture was based on descriptions by several witnesses
    who said they saw the man following Palme shortly before the prime
    minister was killed. 
    
    "We are now looking for a man who is not the murderer, but who
    witnesses say followed Palme on two occassions," Holmer told his daily
    news conference. "This man is about 35, well-built and blond." The
    electronically enhanced photograph depicted a flat-nosed, square-jawed
    man with thick lips and heavy eyebrows. 
    
    The week after Palme was killed, police released a composite photograph
    of a man with dark hair and eyes, a long nose and thin lips, who they
    said was believed to be the killer. Holmer would not give further
    information about the man in the composite released Monday, but he said
    the image was based partly on new information. 
    
    "We have received several hundred tips in recent days," the
    commissioner said. "Some of them may still prove useful." Holmer said
    police still believed the gunman who shot Palme in the back with a
    powerful .357 Magnum pistol was a professional killer working with
    accomplices. "We think there are several involved," he said. 
    
    Holmer refused comment when asked about a suspect police held for a
    week, then released last Wednesday without filing charges after a key
    witness failed to identify him. The man's attorneys have said their
    client is forced to remain in hiding for fear of attack, because police
    have not stated clearly that he is no longer under suspicion. 
    
    Holmer said he remained confident of solving the Palme case, and
    detectives will continue working around the clock "until we have
    results." Police have come under increasing criticism for their failure
    to find solid clues. They have not located the murder weapon or getaway
    car. Holmer says thoroughness, not speed, matters most in a major
    investigation. 
                  

Associated Press Wed 26-MAR-1986 18:13                                  

                  Film Clips Among New Tips Given to Police
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Police hunting for Prime Minister Olof Palme's
    killer have obtained several hours of video tape shot near the Swedish
    leader's home prior to his assassination, Stockholm newspapers reported
    Wednesday. Police hope to find pictures of a man who reportedly tailed
    Palme on at least two ocassions shortly before his death, according to
    the reports. Police Superintendent Lars Richter declined comment on the
    report, citing "investigative reasons." 
    
    The Aftonbladet daily newspaper said Mariano Catan, an amateur
    cameraman, was filming street-life close to Palme's home during the six
    months prior to the Feb. 28 killing. "I believe there might be some
    very interesting material for the police on my tapes," the newspaper
    quoted Catan as saying. 
    
    Catan said he had been planning to make a film about street musicians
    in Stockholm's old town area, where Palme lived. Aftonbladet said Catan
    was examining his video tapes with police in hopes of finding the
    blonde man depicted in the composite photograph released by police on
    Monday. Police said the man had been seen tailing Palme. 
    
    A man whom police had described as a suspect in the killing was
    released a week ago for lack of evidence, and he remains in hiding,
    because, his attorney says, the man is in danger from the public. 
    
    Police have come under increasing criticism for their failure to find
    solid clues. They have not located the murder weapon or getaway car. 
                                          

Associated Press Wed 09-APR-1986 20:19                             Palme Case

               Commissioner's wife attacked, he refuses comment
    
                              By DICK SODERLUND
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Two masked men attacked the wife of
    Stockholm's police commissioner, who is investigating the murder of
    Prime Minister Olof Palme, and threatened her husband during the
    assault, police said Wednesday. Commissioner Hans Holmer refused to
    discuss the attack during his regular news briefing on the Palme case
    Wednesday, saying only: "This is an incident in the turbulence of this
    case and it is now being investigated. I will have no further comment
    on this." 
    
    He was surrounded by more bodyguards than usual during his 21st
    briefing at police headquarters. It was the second incident involving
    Ingrid Holmer, 42. The commissioner had reported earlier that she was
    approached and threatened last Thursday by a tall Swedish-speaking man
    on a Stockholm street, but was not injured. 
    
    Mrs. Holmer was jogging in the woods Tuesday evening near the couple's
    home in the southern suburb of Huddinge when the two men pushed her
    into a ditch and tore her clothes. She was not seriously hurt. 
    
    A police spokesman said the men, who got away because security guards
    assigned to protect Mrs. Holmer were not with her at the time,
    "threatened the police commissioner through her." He did not describe
    the threat. The spokesman said the guards, from a state-owned security
    company, had stayed behind in the house and would be replaced by
    policemen. 
    
    Palme, 59, had dismissed his personal guards hours before a gunman shot
    him down on a well-lighted downtown street Feb. 28 while he was walking
    home from a movie with his wife, Lisbet. Another indication that the
    attack on Mrs. Holmer was connected with the Palme investigation was
    that the commissioner's special unit was assigned to pursue it. Such a
    case normally would have been handled by local police. 
    
    Holmer said police had reconstructed the Palme shooting at the scene,
    with 39 witnesses who had been there or nearby. The reconstruction "is
    giving us a clearer and more comprehensive pattern of the murder," he
    said, but gave no details. 
                              

    Following the debate on whether Swedish Police has been conducting
    the search for the Prime Minister's assassin in a satisfactory manner,
    the decision has been taken to form a commission to review the
    Police's handling of the case. 
    
    Police Commissioner Hans Holm�r did not offer any comments to this
    development.

Associated Press Sat 26-APR-1986 01:36                BRF-Palme Investigation

                   Opticians Engaged in Palme Assassin Hunt
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Opticians have joined in the hunt for the
    killer of Prime Minister Olof Palme, police said Friday. They said they
    suspect a pair of eyeglasses found close to the murder site the day
    after the Feb. 28 killing were dropped by the man who shot Palme down
    on a sidewalk. 
    
    In Sweden, all people who receive glasses on prescription are
    registered, and police have already solved other cases by tracing
    eyewear dropped by criminals, Kjell Carlsson at the police Technical
    department told The Associated Press. 
                                         

Associated Press Fri 16-MAY-1986 17:01                           Palme Murder

               Prosecutor Clears Suspect in Palme Investigation
    
                          By CECELIA LONNELL
                        Associated Press Writer
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - A Stockholm rosecutor, criticizing police
    investigators, on Friday formally cleared a man who for several weeks
    was a suspect in the Feb. 28 assassination of Prime Minister Olof
    Palme. 
    
    Prosecutor K.G. Svensson issued a statement saying the investigation
    had not shown that the former prospect "has had anything to do with the
    murder" and there was no reason to continue "the prejudicial
    investigation" of him. 
    
    The former suspect, a 33-year-old man described by his lawyers as a
    religious Swede with right-wing views bitterly opposed to Palme and his
    socialist policies, was arrested March 12 and released on the eve of
    his planned arraignment a week later for lack of evidence. 
    
    He was not identified by the state in line with the Swedish practice of
    not naming people who have not been charged. But two newspapers, in
    Malmo and Hudikvalls, identified him as Ake Lennart Victor Gunnarsson
    and said he had once worked as a security guard. 
    
    The anti-communist European Labor Party released a statment on March 18
    saying Gunnarsson once belonged to the organization but asserting it
    had severed its ties with him in 1985. 
    
    He and an acquaintance were the only two people known to have been
    detained in the fruitless hunt for Palme's killer. The second man was
    dropped from the investigation immediately after his release. But
    investigators had refused to clear the 33-year-old, and called him in
    from time to time for confrontations with new witnesses. 
    
    Svensson's statement said the former suspect "could have been removed
    from the investigation far earlier," and accused police investigators
    of efforts to "put pressure on the prosecutor and through various
    channels disturb and obstruct the effective handling on the part of the
    prosecutor." Svensson refused to elaborated further on his statement,
    and the police also declined to comment. 
    
    Strained relations between the prosecutor and police reportedly reached
    a breaking point last week when Svensson's decision to limit the number
    of new witness confrontations with the suspect was reversed by Attorney
    General Magnus Sjoeberg at the insistence of Hans Holmer, the Stockholm
    police commissioner who heads the Palme investigation. 
    
    Last Monday, Holmer issued a statement objecting to a government plan
    to hold a commission of inquiry before the end of May to look into the
    conduct of the police investigation. "No decisive tips or enlightening
    theories are to be expected from a commission," he said. 
    
    Police said they had sifted through thousands of pieces of evidence
    during the investigation and had shortened a list of names of people
    still considered of interest in the case from about 2,000 to 90. 
    
    Palme had been re-elected in general elections just four months before
    he was shot in the back as he strolled along a busy Stockholm street.
    His wife was slightly wounded. 

Associated Press Wed 28-MAY-1986 17:02                          Palme Killing

          Investigators Say Palme Probably Not Killed By Terrorists
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Investigators said Wednesday it seems unlikely
    that terrorists killed Prime Minister Olof Palme. Claes Zeime, judicial
    head of the ivestigation, said in an interview on national radio that
    police had studied 16 organizations without finding a link, and "there
    are many factors which indicate that the murder was not performed by a
    terrorist group." 
    
    Several international terrorist organizations claimed responsibility
    soon after the Socialist prime minister, 59, was shot down on a snowy
    Stockholm street Feb. 28 while walking home from a movie premiere with
    his wife, Lisbet. 
    
    Police Commissioner Hans Holmer, who leads the investigation, said a
    "handful of promising suspects" remain. Early this month, a Stockholm
    prosecutor cleared the one suspect who had been held in the case, a
    33-year-old Swede who formerly belonged to a right-wing organization. 
    
    Holmer told a group of Swedish editors Wednesday that police now have
    "40 leads we consider interesting," most of them with international
    connections. "Zeime is investigating one out of a handful of suspects
    we consider particularly interesting," he said. 

Associated Press Sun 08-JUN-1986 12:03                                  Palme

                Report Palme Knew He Was on Chilean Death List
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Slain Prime Minister Olof Palme knew he was on
    an alleged Chilean secret police death list, a Swedish newspaper
    reported Sunday. The Stockholm daily Expressen said it asked Palme in
    1979 to comment on reports he was on such a list. 
    
    "It was no news to me that I was on (the Chilean secret police) death
    list. I've known that for years," Palme was quoted as saying. "It
    emerged through interrogations in the United States, I think." No
    further details were provided. 
    
    The Social Democratic leader was a prominent foe of Chile's right-wing
    leader Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The South American nation was not invited
    to send government representatives to Palme's funeral. 
    
    In London, the weekly Observer newspaper quoted an unidentified Swedish
    government source as saying that Sweden was "actively investigating a
    Chilean connection" in the unsolved shooting of Palme on a Stockholm
    street Feb. 28. A police spokesman in Stockholm declined comment on the
    British report. "We are investigating both domestic and foreign
    extremist organizations in connection with the murder," said Leif
    Hallberg, spokesman for the Palme investigation. "But I cannot make any
    comment about a certain country or a certain name during the
    investigation." 
    
    The Observer said its source identified a possible key figure in the
    inquiry as Michael Townley, an American convicted of assassinating a
    leading socialist opponent of Pinochet, Orlando Letelier, in
    Washington, D.C. in 1976. 
    
    The report said Sweden has evidence that the Chilean secret police
    "first gave orders for Palme's murder around 1975 and that Townley was
    involved. ... The Swedish government does not believe that Townley was
    necessarily involved personally and physically in Palme's death," the
    newspaper said. 
    
    A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Stockholm would not comment on the case,
    according to the newspaper. 
                               

Associated Press Mon 09-JUN-1986 11:09                                  Palme

              Police Doubt `Chilean Connection' in Palme Killing
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Swedish police today cast doubt on a British
    newspaper report asserting investigators suspect the Chilean secret
    police plotted the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme. 
    
    Police spokesman Leif Hallberg told The Associated Press the leads in
    the investigation "are not inclined in the direction" that the killing
    was ordered from outside Sweden. Hallberg said the field of suspects
    has "narrowed gradually," but that current leads "cannot be told to the
    outside." 
    
    On Sunday, the London weekly The Observer quoted an unidentified
    Swedish government source as saying Sweden was "actively investigating
    a Chilean connection" in the assassination of Palme on a Stockholm
    street Feb. 28. The Observer claimed the Chilean secret police "are
    known to have plotted for more than a decade" to kill Palme, a Social
    Democrat who was a vocal opponent of Chile's right-wing leader, Gen.
    Augusto Pinochet. 
    
    The newspaper said that its source identified a possible key figure in
    the inquiry as Michael Townley, the American convicted in connection
    with the 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier, a leading Socialist
    opponent of Pinochet, in Washington, D.C. The Stockholm daily Svenska
    Dagbladet reported today that Townley had figured in the Palme inquiry,
    but was declared a "dead end" after further investigations with the
    assistance of the FBI. 

Associated Press Mon 09-JUN-1986 19:47                            Chile-Palme

       Says allegation of Chilean involvement in Palme killing foolish
    
    SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - Foreign Minister Jaime del Valle said Monday
    that press reports about the involvement of Chile's military government
    in the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme were "supreme
    foolishness." He told reporters that stories in London's Observer
    newspaper and Sweden's Expressen suggesting that Chilean secret police
    had plotted the assassination were "absurd, like so many others of that
    type." 
    
    In Stockholm, police spokesman Leif Hallberg told The Associated Press
    the leads in the investigation of the killing "are not inclined in the
    direction" that it was ordered from outside Sweden. He said the number
    of suspects has narrowed gradually, but declined to elaborate. 
    
    The weekly Observer quoted a Swedish government source, who was not
    identified, as saying police were "actively investigating a Chilean
    connection" in the assassination of Palme on a Stockholm street Feb.
    28. It said in the report Sunday that Chilean secret police "are known
    to have plotted for more than a decade" to kill Palme, a Social
    Democrat who was a critic of Chile's right-wing military government
    headed by President Augusto Pinochet, the army commander. 
    
    The Observer said the Swedish source named American Michael Townley as
    a key figure in the alleged Chilean plot. Townley was convicted in
    connection with the 1976 murder of Orlando Letelier, who had been a
    diplomatic official in the government of Marxist President Salvador
    Allende that was overthrown in the coup led Gen. Pinochet. Letelier was
    killed by a bomb planted in his car in Washington, D.C. 
    
    Townley pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder a foreign official, and
    in return for his testimony against others, the government agreed to
    support his parole after serving 40 months of his 10-year sentence. He
    was paroled on May 6, 1983 and was given a new identity under the
    federal Witness Protection Program. 
    
    The Stockholm daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet said Monday that
    Townley had at one point figured in the investigation into Palme's
    death, but that area was declared a "dead end" after further checks
    with the assistance of the FBI. 

Associated Press Fri 13-JUN-1986 02:19                                  Palme

    Sweden Asks US For Help In Tracing Possible Chilean Ties To Palme
    Slaying 
    
                                 By PETE YOST
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    WASHINGTON (AP) - Swedish investigators are trying to determine whether
    there is a "Chilean connection" in the assassination of Prime Minister
    Olof Palme, U.S. law enforcement officials say. 
    
    Sweden has asked the FBI for information supplied by the same man who
    implicated agents of the right-wing Chilean government in the 1976
    slaying in Washington of Orlando Letelier, said the law enforcement
    officials, speaking on condition they not be identified. Sweden is
    interested in information provided to U.S. authorities by Michael
    Vernon Townley following the Letelier slaying, the officials said. 
    
    In 1979, Townley told U.S. authorities about several international
    assassination plots against socialists and other left-wing political
    figures who oppose Chile's president, Augusto Pinochet. Palme had
    actively supported opponents of the Pinochet government. 
    
    Townley told authorities his secret police supervisors in Chile wanted
    him to make an attempt on the life of at least one Chilean political
    opponent of the Pinochet government in 1976 in Madrid, Spain, at a
    meeting of Social Democratic parties. Palme and other international
    political figures attended the meeting. 
    
    A representative of the Swedish government met last week at FBI
    headquarters to discuss the Palme case, the sources said. FBI spokesman
    Lane Bonner said Thursday that "we are cooperating with the Swedish
    authorities" in the Palme assassination investigation, but he refused
    to say whether Townley's statements to U.S. authorities were involved.
    At the Swedish embassy in Washington, spokesman Stig Hadenius had no
    comment on the matter. 
    
    Letelier was a former Chilean ambassador to the United States who died
    when his car was blown up on a Washington street. He had been an
    outspoken critic of Pinochet. Townley confessed to having conspired
    with Chile's secret police force to kill Letelier. 
    
    A book on the Letelier case co-authored by the former U.S. attorney who
    directed the prosecution, Eugene Propper, outlines the assassination
    plot involving the 1976 Madrid meeting, but makes no mention of Palme
    or other foreign political figures as possible targets. Townley
    ultimately testified as a prosecution witness in the case against three
    Cubans charged in the assassination of Letelier. Townley is now in the
    U.S. government's witness protection program. 
    
    The Chilean Supreme Court rejected a U.S. request to extradite three
    Chilean security officers implicated by Townley in the Letelier
    assassination. Three anti-Castro activists were convicted of
    first-degree murder, their convictions were overturned on appeal and
    they eventually were acquitted in a second trial. Two other Cubans were
    indicted but have never been caught. 

Associated Press Sat 05-JUL-1986 12:47                                  Palme

       Assassination To be Solved within Two Months, Investigator Says
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - The assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme
    will be solved within two months, a chief investigator was quoted as
    saying in an interview published Saturday. "In two months I will
    retire. By then we will have solved the Palme murder," Superintendent
    Nils Linder told the Stockholm evening newspaper Expressen. 
    
    Linder is chief of the Stockholm police department's crime section and
    a member of Police Commissioner Hans Holmer's braintrust group that
    leads the investigation. Palme was shot in the back with a revolver
    late Feb. 28 while strolling home with his wife on a main Stockholm
    street after seeing a movie. 
    
    Expressen said without attribution that the investigation results point
    to that a loosely joined group was behind the killing. "The problem is
    that we probably only can prove that a certain group is behind the
    murder. That is then of no value whatsoever to the court," Linder was
    quoted as saying in the interview, without elaborating. Linder was
    unavailable for comment Saturday. 
    
    Police have been tightlipped about the investigation all through the
    hunt for the killer. Linder's quoted statement that the killing will be
    solved is in line with other top investigators recent comments. But no
    major breakthroughs had been announced. 
    
    Holmer has said secrecy is needed to avoid alerting suspects, and that
    investigators have filtered out a few suspects from about 24,000 tips
    that came in after the killing. Tax-free rewards totaling 1 million
    kroner (about $138,000) have been offered for information leading to
    solution of the case. 
    
    Linder said the underworld has given police much information, and that
    through the investigation many other crimes have been solved. "Now the
    crooks feel that we have to solve this soon, so that there is a bit of
    peace and quiet," Linder was quoted as saying. 

From .13:

    Linder said the underworld has given police much information, and that
    through the investigation many other crimes have been solved. "Now the
    crooks feel that we have to solve this soon, so that there is a bit of
    peace and quiet," Linder was quoted as saying. 


This sounds like a direct quote from the 1930's file "M" -- Peter
Lorrie's first film -- in which the hunt for a child murderer so
disrupts the "ordinary way of doing business" that the underworld
joins the police in its search for the criminal.

A review in today's (July 6) Boston Globe of the video of "M"
points out that "the real jolt in 'M' comes when we realize that
Lorrie [the criminal] is gradually allowed to embody twisted
sensitivity as the differences between cops and criminals dissolve.

Martin.

    I and my family are just back from a three week trip to Finland,
    which included a one day visit to Stockholm.  I intend to write
    more on this later (when I've unpacked, caught up on the bills,
    and such), but there is something I wanted to include here now.
    
    While my wife and I were walking around in Stockholm we happened
    across the sight of Palme's assassination.  It was probably the
    eeriest thing that has ever happened to me.  We were walking down
    one of the downtown streets and noticed that we were crossing Olaf
    Palme Street -- the name has been changed but it uses the same discreet
    street signs that all the other streets use.  We walked just a little
    farther on and noticed a small pile of roses on the other side of
    the street.  We crossed over, sensing what it was, and looked at
    the pile.  This was two weeks ago.  The pile was made up of recent
    red roses, many of which had cards on them.
    
    That was all there was.  No signs, no monuments, no sight-seeing
    tourist traps, nothing you would expect over here.
    
    Looking at it then, and thinking about it later, I was devastated
    at the quiet strength of the statement that that small pile of roses
    was making.  (Consider how long people have been leaving roses.
    I am still struck by it.)
    
    Jim.

    In most of Scandanavia (as well as the rest of Europe), people show 
    their grief in more private, characteristically uncommercial ways (no 
    long TV funerals sponsored by McDonald's and Coke).  
    
    On a brighter note, you spent 3 weeks in Finland with nothing to
    report?  Sigh.
    

Associated Press Sun 19-OCT-1986 15:46                         Sweden-Suspect

          Deported Swede Questioned, Unclear if Linked to Palme Case
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - A Swede deported from Britain was questioned
    by police, a newspaper said Sunday, but it was not clear if this
    involved the unsolved killing of Prime Minister Olof Palme, as a
    British paper claimed. 
    
    The man, not identified, was deported in the past week, the British
    Foreign Office said Saturday. The Sunday Telegraph of London said he
    was one of six men arrested in Britain three weeks ago on suspicion of
    plotting to kill Israel's ambassador to Britain, Yehuda Avner. 
    
    The newspaper said that when the man returned to Sweden, police
    questioned him in connection with the assassination of Palme, shot Feb.
    28 on a Stockholm street. 
    
    The Swedish newspaper Expressen quoted Chief Sven-Ake Hjalmroth of
    security police as saying, "We spoke to the man a few days after he
    returned to Sweden. The facts from that talk are the only information
    we have on him." Hjalmroth did not say if the questioning concerned
    Palme and denied British newspaper reports that Swedish authorities has
    asked for the man's extradition. "We have not demanded that. It is
    formally impossible and must be due to some misunderstanding,"
    Hjalmroth was quoted as saying. 
    
    Expressen said it asked a security police source if the man was
    suspected in connection with the Palme investigation, and quoted the
    unidentified source as saying only, "The automatic connection is there,
    no more. New information will be needed to question him again." 
    
    No police official at Stockholm headquarters was available to comment
    on the case Sunday. The news spokesman in the Palme investigation could
    not be reached at his office or at home. 
    
    Swedish police have investigated at least a dozen left- and right-wing
    groups and questioned scores of persons in the assassination. Stockholm
    Police Commissioner Hans Holmer said last week that the investigation
    had entered an "intensive phase" but refused to give details. 
    
    The London Sunday Telegraph said the deported Swede was thought to be a
    key figure in the organization of Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal,
    whose real name is Sabry al-Banna. The British Home Office refused to
    comment other than to confirm that a Swede was deported. The Sunday    
    Telegraph said Palme was known to be a friend of Palestine Liberation
    Organization leader Yasser Arafat. Abu Nidal broke with Arafat in 1973. 

Associated Press Fri 14-NOV-1986 22:03                           Sweden-Palme

            East European Refugee Interrogated about Palme Slaying
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Police investigating the slaying of Prime
    Minister Olof Palme interrogated an Eastern European refugee who is a
    convicted criminal with links to right-wing extremists, Swedish
    newspapers reported Friday. The Aftonbladet and other newspapers said
    the refugee was detained Thursday in Malm� in southern Sweden. 
    
    In an unattributed report, the Malm� newspaper Arbetet said the man was
    a 34-year-old Eastern European refugee who was convicted for crimes in
    Italy before his arrival in Sweden in 1971. Arbetet said he spent long
    periods abroad and had contacts with right-wing extremists in Europe
    who allegedly finance anti-socialist propaganda through drug dealing. 
    
    Malmo police declined to comment on the reports. Palme was gunned down
    at close range last February while strolling with his wife on a main
    Stockholm street. 
    
    Meanwhile, Minister of Justice Sten Wickbom said the attorney general's
    office will investigate the reported faked escape of a convicted bank
    robber who was assisting in the Palme investigation. The Stockholm
    tabloid Expressen said this week national Bureau of Investigation
    director Tommy Lindstrom had confirmed the faked escape of the convict
    who was being transported from a high-security prison last August.
    According to the newspaper, the escape was set up to protect the
    robber's credibility in the underworld. He was taken back into custody
    on Nov. 3, the paper said. 
    
    Unidentified police sources quoted by newspapers said the convict was
    involved in illegal arms deals and offered to help in the Palme case.
    Police have refused to identify him. 

Associated Press Wed 03-DEC-1986 19:20                      Sweden-Palme Case

               Senior Official Confirms Conflicts In Palme Case
                                                       
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - A dozen detectives have left the investigation
    of Prime Minister Olof Palme's murder because of "discontent" and
    disagreement over how to pursue the case, a senior official said
    Wednesday. 
    
    Per-Erik Nilsson, head of a judicial commission appointed to study
    security and police issues related to the case, said in a television
    interview: "It is a considerable disadvantage. It is regrettable ...
    such tensions (have developed), but there has been a physically and
    psychologically strenuous investigation." He confirmed reports that
    conflicts had arisen over how to conduct the investigation of Palme's
    murder, which took place more than nine months ago. 
    
    On Tuesday the chief spokesman for Stockholm police commissioner Hans
    Holmer, head of the investigation, denied allegations that policemen
    had left the case or been reassigned because of conflicts. Leif
    Hallberg said: "It is simply not true. There have been some transfers
    of detectives but that was simply routine transfers because their
    identities could have been blown when tailing a suspect." 
    
    No suspects are in custody and the murder weapon has not been found.
    Palme was hit at close range by a single bullet from a large-caliber
    handgun as he and his wife walked home from a movie premiere in
    downtown Stockholm shortly before midnight Feb. 28. 

Associated Press Thu 04-DEC-1986 06:47                           Sweden-Palme

           Opposition Leaders Discontented With Palme Investigation
    
                                By LARS FOYEN
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Opposition leaders are demanding to be fully
    briefed on the Olof Palme murder investigation, and some parliament
    members are calling for the ouster of the investigation chief, Hans
    Holmer, Swedish radio reported today. The radio said that reports this
    week of discontented detectives leaving the hunt for Palme's killer was
    the last straw for many members of the center-right opposition. 
    
    Police spokesman Leif Hallberg has denied the detectives resigned,
    saying they were transferred because their faces had become known to
    suspects they were tailing. 
    
    Conservative Party leader Carl Bildt demanded for the first time a full
    briefing by the government on the state of the nine-month
    investigation, the broadcast said. Earlier briefings were initiated by
    the government, the radio said. 
    
    Palme, a 59-year-old socialist, was shot to death at close range with a
    single large-caliber bullet from a handgun as he and his wife walked
    home from a movie in downtown Stockholm shortly before midnight Feb.
    28. 
    
    Politicians of the ruling Social Democratic Party and the opposition
    have let Holmer, the Stockholm police commissioner, and his special
    Palme squad work on the case with little public criticism or
    interference. But as the investigation enters its 10th month with
    reports of strife among the investigators, a flurry of rumors about
    possible suspects and only vague police statements about a
    breakthrough, many politicans have had enough, the radio said. 
    
    Karin Ahrland, the chairman of the parliament's Justice Committee, said
    in an interview on the broadcast that she had increasing doubts that
    Palme's killer would be caught. "I thought so in the beginning. These
    days I am more doubtful," she said.  
    
    Holmer has spoken guardedly of a main theory with a number of suspects
    involved and expressed general optimism about solving the case, but has
    not revealed any tangible evidence except the bullet they believe
    killed Palme. 
    
    Newspaper speculation in recent months has centered on ultra-rightists
    who hated the four-term socialist prime minister and on leftist Kurdish
    terrorists who may have wanted to get even at the Palme government for
    alleged mistreatment in Sweden of members of the separatist Kurd
    Workers' Party. The Kurds seek a separate nation in their tribal
    homeland which includes portions of Turkey, Iran and Iraq at the
    intersection of the three countries. 
    
    Foreign Minister Sten Andersson, in a rare comment on the
    investigation, was quoted as saying today by the regional daily
    Sydsvenska Dagbladet that "the investigators have not on all points
    been as effective as one has the right to demand." 
    
    Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson was attacked by Holmer last summer for
    allegedly disturbing the work of the police after the premier expressed
    "dissappointment" at the lack of progress. 

Associated Press Sat 06-DEC-1986 01:34                        La Rouche-Palme

       Authorities Find References to Palme Slaying in LaRouche Papers
    
                             By WILLIAM M. WELCH
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    WASHINGTON (AP) - Evidence seized during a raid on the headquarters of
    political extremist Lyndon LaRouche contains numerous references to the
    slaying of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, sources close to the
    investigation say. 
    
    LaRouche associates held a news conference Friday to denounce reports
    about the materials. They said the LaRouche organization had no contact
    after mid-1985 with a man, Viktor Gunnarsson, initially held and
    released following Palme's Feb. 28 slaying. 
    
    NBC News reported that Swedish authorites are examining notebooks that
    contain 45 references to the Palme assassination, the use of a
    .357-caliber Magnum weapon in the slaying, and Gunnarsson. 
    
    "It is obvious that federal authorities are deliberately leaking false
    and misleading information to the press for the purpose of creating a
    prejudicial and inflamatory climate around their ongoing investigations
    of associates of Lyndon LaRouche," said a statement issued by
    LaRouche's National Democratic Policy Committee. 
    
    The LaRouche associates distributed an edition of his Executive
    Intelligence Review magazine devoted to the Palme slaying. Webster
    Tarpley, a LaRouche associate and contributing editor of the magazine,
    said "the Soviets are the prime suspects" in the slaying. 
    
    Sources close to a federal investigation into the LaRouche
    organization, who spoke on condition they not be identified, said there
    were numerous references to the Palme case in notebooks seized under
    federal search warrants on Oct. 6, when more than 400 state and federal
    agents raided LaRouche offices in Leesburg, Va. Sources said they
    appeared to have been written after the attack on Palme, but that they
    did not know what to make of the references. 
    
    "We're not going to comment on any ridiculous stories about notebooks,"
    Tarpley said. "Who knows what's in notebooks." 
    
    A grand jury in Boston indicted 10 LaRouche followers and five of his
    organizations on charges of fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice. A
    second grand jury, in Alexandria, Va., also is investigating the
    LaRouche organization. 
    
    Gunnarsson was publicly linked to the LaRouche organization after he
    was arrested May 12. He was released after several days but police
    picked him up several times to be shown to witnesses. 
    
    Irwin Suall, director of fact-finding for the Anti-Defamation League of
    B'nai B'rith, which monitors extremist groups, described Gunnarsson as
    "not a hard core member" but a "sympathizer" of LaRouche's Swedish
    organization. Suall said he visited Stockholm last summer to look into
    LaRouche's operations there and was questioned by Swedish
    investigators. He said he was later questioned further by a Swedish
    consul official. Suall said he gave the FBI a written report on his
    findings but added, "Nothing in that report shed any light on the
    assassination." 
    
    Palme had been the object of vicious attacks in LaRouche publications
    in the United States and even more so in Sweden, he said. Suall said
    LaRouche's Swedish publications referred to the prime minister as
    "Ayatollah Palme" and said he should be shot. 
    
    An American who heads the European Labor Party, which espouses many of
    LaRouche's ideas, disappeared after Palme's death, Suall said. He said
    Swedish authorities asked his help in locating Clifford Gaddy and his
    wife Kerstin Tegin Gaddy in the United States, but that he was unable
    to do so. He said Swedish authorities said Gunnarsson and the LaRouche
    connection were among several leads they were following. 

Associated Press Fri 05-DEC-1986 20:04                             Palme Case

         Attorney General Recommends New Chief Of Palme Investigation
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Attorney General Bengt Hamdahl on Friday
    joined those who want Stockholm's police commissioner to step aside as
    director of the hunt for whoever killed Prime Minister Olof Palme more
    than nine months ago. 
    
    The murder weapon has not been found and no suspects are in custody.
    Palme, 59, was slain with one bullet from a high-powered pistol as he
    and his wife strolled home from a movie in downtown Stockholm the night
    of Feb. 28. 
    
    "The investigation of the murder case should be better organized. It
    would be more convenient if a less ranking official took over the
    investigation," Hamdahl said on a television newscast Friday night. 
    
    Less than 24 hours earlier Karin Arhland, who heads Parliament's
    standing committee on the administration of justice, said the team led
    by Commissioner Hans Holmer "should consider taking a rest." She added:
    "Then they'll have to determine if they are going to continue with the
    same team." 
    
    Several hundred top policemen have served on the "Palme Squad." Hamdahl
    said: "During such a long period of time there are bound to be
    questions to be answered and decisions to take at a higher level, but
    there is no such level because the head is in the frontline position." 
    
    Asked whether that was a criticism of Holmer, the attorney general
    said: "I don't know anything about his qualifications. This is only a
    statement I have made as a private person in an organizational matter."
    "The present organization may have been the right one at the outset.
    But now, when it seems to be a protracted investigation, I feel that
    the organization should be changed." 

Associated Press Mon 08-DEC-1986 19:25                           Sweden-Palme

        Chief Public Prosecutor Says Top Investigator Should Step Down
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - The country's chief prosecutor called Monday
    for the replacement of the top investigator in the unsolved
    assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme. The evening television
    statement by Chief Public Prosecutor Magnus Sjoberg added to a public
    dispute over whether Hans Holmer, the top investigator, should step
    aside. 
    
    Palme was shot to death at close range with a single large-caliber
    bullet from a handgun as he and his wife walked home unguarded from a
    movie in downtown Stockholm shortly before midnight Feb. 28. He was 59. 
    
    The investigation, now in its 10th month, has yielded little evidence
    despite unprecedented efforts. No murder weapon has been found. Holmer
    has refused to comment on calls for him to step aside. 
    
    Echoing the words of Attorney General Bengt Hamdahl, Sjoberg told the
    public television audience that "it would be more convenient if a less
    ranking official took over the investigation. It is a purely practical
    matter." 
    
    But not all top judicial officials agreed. Minister of Justice Sten
    Wickbom said on the Monday program: "I am not prepared to change the
    present organization. I can't see any reason for the government to
    interfere in this matter." 
    
    Last Thursday, a former Cabinet minister, Karin Ahrland, suggested that
    Holmer and his aides take a break. Ms. Ahrland, chairwoman of the
    Standing Committee of the Administration of Justice in the Parliament,
    added: "Then they'll have to determine if they are going to continue
    with the same team." 
                                       
    Police have spent an estimated 600,000 working hours investigating the
    Palme assassination with an average of 150 men a day. About 30,000 tips
    have been received, said Chief Police spokesman Leif Hallberg, who
    declined to say how many suspects have been interrogated. He would say
    only that more than 9,000 interrogations have been held with suspects
    and witnesses offering information. 

Associated Press Tue 09-DEC-1986 17:45                             Palme Case

         Holmer Says He's On Right Track And Will Not Quit Palme Case
    
                            By HARALD MOLLERSTROM
                           Associated Press writer
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Hans Holmer, the Stockholm police chief, said
    Tuesday he has the Olof Palme murder investigation on the right track
    and will not step aside as some judicial officials have suggested.
    Holmer has led the probe since the prime minister was shot down the
    night of Feb. 28 while walking home with his wife from a movie premiere
    in downtown Stockholm. The murder weapon has not been found and no
    suspects are in custody. 
    
    "We are 95 percent certain we are onto the right lead. ... It would be
    cowardly and irresponsible to step down at this stage," Holmer told the
    national television news program Magasinet. He declared himself
    optimistic about solving the case. When asked whether he had considered
    taking a vacation, Holmer said: I am not tired. This is how Swedes used
    to work in in the 1920s. You get used to it." 
    
    Attorney General Bengt Hamdahl and Magnus Sjoberg, the chief public
    prosecutor, have suggested that a lower-ranking officer lead the
    investigation and report to a top-level official. In the interview,
    Holmer said: "It would have been irresponsible had I not taken over
    that task. The responsibility should be with the top man." 
    
    When asked whether anything might change his mind about stepping down,
    he replied: "If the government asked me to do so or if I realized the
    investigation could not be carried further." Police have put in an
    estimated 600,000 hours since Palme was killed, receiving more than
    30,000 tips and conducting about 9,000 interrogations. 
    
    In response to questions about the case, Holmer said: "I can't say
    exactly what we are doing. If I gave you more information we would
    never be able to the solve the case. We are gathering circumstantial
    evidence. It is like jigsaw puzzle and some pieces are still missing.
    We have a main theory which we stick to and we are determined to follow
    that." 
    
    About the criticism, he said: "You get used to attention, but it is
    difficult to get used to being hanged." 

Associated Press Sat 13-DEC-1986 17:28                         Sweden-Suspect

       Pub Brawl Leads To Arrest of Man Linked to Group in Palme Murder
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Police arrested a man who got into a pub brawl
    and shot at pursuing officers who identified him as a member of a
    Kurdish group suspected in the murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme. 
    
    Police identified the man only as a 26-year-old Kurd from Turkey, and
    said he and a companion got into a fight Friday night with other
    patrons at a jazz club. The man ran from the club and fired several
    shots at policemen who chased him, but did not hit anyone, authorities
    said, speaking on condition of anonymity. 
    
    Police records later showed the man was a member of the Kurdish
    People's Workers Party, or PPK, and he had been arrested about a year
    ago in connection with the murder of a PPK member who defected from the
    organzation in Stockholm. 
    
    The chief prosecutor in the Palme case, Claes Zeime, subsequently
    ordered the Kurd and his companion involved in the bar brawl held for
    investigation in the slaying of Palme. Neither Zeime nor Leif Hallberg,
    chief spokesman for the police unit probing the Palme murder, would
    comment further on the matter. 
    
    Swedish security police earlier tried to deport the Kurd and other PPK
    members suspected of terrorist activity. But they argued they would be
    in danger if sent back to Turkey, and were allowed to stay in Sweden on
    humanitarian grounds. But Swedish authorities restricted them to the
    Stockholm area, and police reportedly continued to investigate the
    organization in connection with the Palme murder. The prime minister
    was shot to death on a Stockholm street last Feb. 28. 

Associated Press Wed 17-DEC-1986 20:25                           Sweden-Palme

                       Release Four Kurds in Palme Case
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Police have released four of five Kurds
    arrested last weekend following a bar fight and held in connection with
    the slaying of Prime Minister Olof Palme earlier this year, radio
    reports said Wednesday. 
    
    Hans Holmer, head of the police unit probing the Feb. 28 assassination,
    confirmed their release and said it did not affect his investigation.
    "What happened this weekend was that we investigated a bar fight and
    ... the murder attempts against several Stockholm policemen," Holmer
    replied to a reporter's question. "It has nothing to do with" the Palme
    case, he said on Swedish radio. 
    
    The Kurds were arrested late Friday following a nightclub brawl. The
    five ran from the club, and one fired several shots at pursuing
    officers but did not hit anyone. Police records later showed the
    26-year-old gunman, whose name was not released, was a member of a
    Turkish separatist group, the Kurdish Workers' Party, and had
    previously been investigated in the slaying of a member who left the
    party in Sweden. 
    
    Chief Prosecutor Claes Zeime, who is heading the government probe of
    the Palme murder, then ordered the five held for investigation of any
    link to the case. Swedish radio said the four were released without
    charge, and prosecutors sought a court order Tuesday to detain the
    gunman on suspicion of illegally possessing a weapon and attempted
    manslaughter. 
    
    The Palme government declared the PKK, which is seeking an independent
    Kurdish nation in southeastern Turkey, a terrorist group. It sentenced
    two men with reputed PKK links to life imprisonment in connection with
    the murders of two PKK defectors. 

Associated Press Mon 22-DEC-1986 00:18                           Sweden-Palme

                    Hunt Goes on for Killer of Olof Palme
    
                                By LARS FOYEN
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Every day for 10 months people have placed red
    roses on the sidewalk where Prime Minister Olof Palme was killed by a
    bullet in the back. And every day scores of policemen press their
    search for the man who fired the .357-caliber Magnum bullet. But
    Sweden's most sensational murder case remains unresolved, despite the
    country's biggest manhunt. 
    
    An embattled Hans Holmer, Stockholm police commissioner, doggedly
    pursues the investigation while the public and press clamor for
    results. 
    
    Palme, 59, a charismatic four-term socialist prime minister and
    champion of disarmament and Third World-causes, was shot down Feb. 28
    on Sveavagen, one of Stockholm's busiest thoroughfares. Palme, who
    sometimes dismissed his bodyguards to walk in the capital, was
    strolling with his wife Lisbet following a late movie. 
    
    Holmer, 56, who personally heads the hunt for the killer, has recently
    been urged to step down by the national prosecutor and other officials
    who criticize a lack of progress in the investigation. Holmer claims to
    know who conspired to kill Palme. He dismissed his critics in a
    December interview. "We are 95 per cent certain we are on to the right
    lead. ... It would be cowardly and irresponsible to step down at this
    stage," he said on a television news program. 
    
    But Chief Prosecutor Claes Zeime countered in a Dagens Nyheter
    newspaper interview, "The police have for three months been saying,
    `Soon it will be over, soon it will be over."' "But they haven't asked
    the prosecutors. And they know we don't share that view," Zeime said. 
    
    Police spokesman Leif Hallberg told The Associated Press investigators
    are concentrating on a "main lead" and are trying to assemble evidence
    against a group of people "with links to both Sweden and other
    countries." The police, however, do not yet know "who actually pulled
    the trigger," Holmer said on television. 
    
    All Swedish national newpapers claim Holmer's lead involves members of
    the Kurdish Workers Party, a Marxist organization that seeks to set up
    a separate state in southeastern Turkey. The Palme government sentenced
    two men with alleged links to the workers party to life prison terms
    for the killing of two people who left the party in Sweden. It also
    classified the party as a terrorist organization. 
    
    Holmer has refused to comment on the reports. Spokesmen for the Kurdish
    Workers Party deny any involvement in Palme's death. There was
    speculation the arrests of five Kurds in mid-December might be a break
    in the case. But after four of the five Kurds were released, Holmer
    denied any link. "They have nothing to do with each other. We continue
    working as we have done before," he said. 
    
    A police reconstruction, based on accounts from 40 witnesses, said the
    killer followed Palme and his wife down the street and fired a bullet
    into the prime minister's back at point-blank range. The killer,
    described as about six feet tall and 40 years old, fired a second time
    and a bullet grazed Mrs. Palme's back. As she knelt over her dying
    husband, the killer fled on foot up a darkened side street. 
    
    Holmer, writing in the Stockholm newspaper Expressen, said the first
    police car arrived two minutes later. The killer probably was 400 yards
    away by then, he said, a lead the police have been trying to make up
    for ever since. "Looking for a fleeing killer in the first hours is
    like looking for the needle in the haystack. You don't even know what
    haystack to look in," he wrote. 
    
    About 150 police officers have been working on the case, have
    investigated 30,000 tips and have questioned more than 9,000 people,
    police say. The only known results so far: two bullets found by
    bystanders shortly after the slaying, and the "lead" Holmer talks
    about. 
    
    Lack of concrete police information has created an open season for
    newspaper speculation. Names mentioned at one time or other in press
    reports include the West German Baader-Meinhof gang, the Yugoslav
    Croatian separatist movement Ustasha, the Chilean secret police, the
    CIA, the Palestinian Abu Nidal terrorist group and followers of
    American rightist Lyndon LaRouche. Various unidentified right-wing
    religious sects and neo-Nazi organizations also have been mentioned. 
    
    Two weeks after the assassination, police arrested a 33-year old Swede
    with a record of anti-communist activity. He was held for a week before
    being released. Prosecutor K.G. Svensson later left the Palme
    investigation after accusing Holmer of conducting a "prejudicial
    investigation" of the man. Holmer said in December police were no
    longer interested in the man. 
    
    Some top detectives also left the investigation, reportedly because of
    friction with Holmer. Holmer denied reports of strife, saying the
    detectives quit after it was shown they leaked information to a
    newspaper. Scores of newspaper editorials have expressed alarm at the
    investigation's lack of success. 
    
    Holmer has said the investigation is not only a manhunt but also a
    "matter of state." The stakes are high for Holmer personally. If he
    catches the killer, he will be a national hero. If not, he may be
    remembered as the policeman who had every national law enforcement
    resource at his disposal and yet failed to solve the biggest murder
    case in modern Sweden. 

	 Stockholm Police  Commissioner  Hans Holm�r  has been elected
	 'Swede  of the Year' by the television news magazine Rapport.
         The jury's motivation for choosing Holm�r was

	    "[Mr. Holm�r] has led the search for Olof Palme's assassin
	 using unconventional methods and with unbroken optimism."

	 The award  is  granted  each  year - in 1984 Finance Minister
	 Kjell-Olof  Feldt  became Swede of the Year, last year Refaat
	 El-Sayed of Fermenta AB was elected.

Associated Press Tue 20-JAN-1987 11:15                           Sweden-Palme

                Three Men Picked Up in Palme Case Are Released
    
                                By LARS FOYEN
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Police today arrested three men suspected of
    involvement in Prime Minister Olof Palme's assassination but later said
    they would be released for lack of evidence. None of the men was
    identified by name or nationality. A statement from police headquarters
    said the three were picked up in a sweep of several people linked to
    the Kurdish Workers Party, a Marxist group. 
    
    Despite the decision to release the men, Police Chief Hans Holmer
    indicated publicly for the first time he believed a link existed
    between the Kurdish Workers Party and Palme's killing. 
    
    Holmer and Stockholm Chief Prosecutor Claes Zeime initially issued a
    statement today saying the three were "informed of suspicion of
    complicity in the murder of Olof Palme." But at a later news
    conference, Zeime said, "The evidence situation is such that they will
    not be ordered held at the moment." He said there was "no dramatic
    change in the evidence situation." 
    
    Palme, 59, a socialist, was shot in the back Feb. 28 in central
    Stockholm. The slaying set off the biggest manhunt in Swedish history. 
    
    "The time was suitable to check certain information in the min lead,"
    Zeime said of the arrests. Holmer has said for months police were close
    to solving the Palme case. He acknowledged today that his main
    suspicions center on the Kurdish Workers Party and said "it is a part
    of the main lead we have been working on today." Party spokesmen
    repeatedly have denied any involvement. 
    
    Holmer said 20 people, 12 of them Kurds, were arrested and were
    questioned today. Three were to remain in custody on suspicion of
    taking part in the November 1985 slaying of Cetin Gungor, a Kurdish
    Workers Party defector in Stockholm. The Kurdish Workers Party had been
    declared a terrorist organization in 1984, but its members were allowed
    to remain in the country. 
    
    Palme, a champion of disarmament and Third World causes, was shot at
    point-blank range with a .357-caliber Magnum. He and his wife, Lisbet,
    had just left a movie theater and were walking down a main street in
    central Stockholm. The killer fled on foot down a darkened street and
    has been the object of Sweden's most intense manhunt. 
    
    Several west European countries have sizable communities of Kurds, most
    of them refugees from war or repression in their home region, which
    includes parts of Iraq, Iran and eastern Turkey. The goverment keeps no
    official records on the number of Kurds in Sweden, listing them instead
    by country of origin. However, the Swedish Communist Party last year
    estimated that there were 7,000 to 8,000 Kurds in Sweden, most of them
    from Turkey. The Kurdish Workers Party was founded in Turkey in the
    1970s and later expanded its organization to Western Europe. It has
    been torn by internal strife and has been accused of killing defectors
    and detractors. 
    
    Press speculation about Palme's killer has focused on such groups as
    the West German Baader-Meinhoff gang, Yugoslav Croatian separatists,
    the Abu Nidal Palestinian terrorist group and various right-wing and
    neo-Nazi groups. 
    
    Two weeks after Palme's killing, police arrested a 33-year-old Swede
    who had a record of anti-Communist activity. He was released a week
    later without being charged, and police said they no longer were
    interested in him. 

Associated Press Mon  2-FEB-1987 19:31                           Sweden-Palme

          Investigation of Prime Minister's Assassination in Turmoil
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Talks between police and prosecutors over how
    to pursue the killer of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme broke down
    completely Monday, Sweden's national news agency TT reported. A major
    crisis emerged in uneasy relations between the prosecutors, headed by
    Claes Zeime, and the Stockholm police commissioner, Hans Holmer, after
    the apparent failure of a police roundup of 20 people two weeks ago. 
    
    Palme, a Socialist who was elected prime minister four times, was shot
    from behind while walking home with his wife from a downtown movie
    theater last Feb. 28. 
    
    The chief prosecutor has been especially critical of Holmer's
    concentrating on a small group of radical Kurdish immigrants.
    Prosecutors want to drop the Kurdish emphasis. They also want the
    investigation run like a normal murder probe, with a prosecutor
    directing the homicide squad of Stockholm police. The police would
    prefer a dual investigation leadership, with police pursuing the
    Kurdish probe and prosecutors checking out other leads, TT said. 
    
    Foreign Minister Sten Andersson said Sunday the government might have
    to intervene if police and prosecutors cannot get together. It is
    Swedish practice for the government to stay clear of the work of police
    and prosecutors. Cabinet members have been reluctant to get involved in
    the case. 

Associated Press Wed  4-FEB-1987 19:39                                  Palme
    
              Government Changes Command in Palme Investigation
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - National officials will take over the Olof
    Palme murder investigation from Stockholm's police chief, who has run
    it since the prime minister was shot nearly a year ago, the government
    said Wednesday. Its decision came after days of public quarrels between
    police officials and prosecutors on how the case should be handled. 
    
    "The government tomorrow will assign the national police commissioner,
    Holger Romander, and the chief state prosecutor's office to be in
    charge of the continued police work in the murder investigation,"
    Palme's successor Ingvar Carlsson told a news conference Wednesday
    night. Stockholm police commissioner Hans Holmer, who has led the
    investigation since Palme was killed on a downtown Stockholm street
    Feb. 28, 1986, will join a consulting group connected with the
    investigation, the prime minister said. 
    
    Also removed from the case was Claes Zeime, the Stockholm chief
    prosecutor who was head of the judicial investigation and had argued
    with Holmer. 
    
    Carlsson's government told feuding officials Tuesday they must present
    a solution within 24 hours so the investigation could proceed. "There
    has been no damage yet, but if the infighting had continued the
    investigation could have been paralyzed," he said Wednesday night. 
    
    Chief prosecutor K.G. Svensson resigned from the case last year and
    Zeime replaced him. He and Holmer have disagreed publicly over the
    police commissioner's concentration on a small group of left-wing
    Kurdish exiles, the Kurdish Workers' Party. Zeime and his aides said
    they wanted to start over, questioning witnesses from the murder site
    again and following other leads police had discarded. 
    
    Carlsson said Tuesday that the government felt the probe should pursue
    "all leads in the case considered realistic." 
    
    National television named Holmer "Swede of the Year" for 1986. The
    Stockholm commissioner has remained popular despite his failure to
    catch the killer. 
    
    Carlsson had wanted to maintain a government tradition of not
    interfering in police work, but summoned Romander and Magnus Sjoberg,
    the chief state prosecutor, after four days of negotiations between
    police and prosecutors broke down Monday. 
                                             

Associated Press Thu  5-MAR-1987 20:07                           Palme-Police

         Officer Who Headed Palme Killing Probe Quits as Police Chief
    
                              By CECILIA LONNELL
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - The police officer removed last month as head
    of the probe into the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme
    resigned Thursday as Stockholm police commissioner. The resignation of
    Hans Holmer, announced by the Ministry of Justice, followed further
    criticism of his handling of the fruitless investigation into the Feb.
    28, 1986, murder. Palme, 59, was shot in the back by an unknown
    assailant as he walked with his wife in downtown Stockholm. 
    
    Holmer's letter of resignation did not include an explanation of his
    decision, national radio quoted police spokesman Bjorn Fougelberg as
    saying. But Holmer, who was named "Swede of the Year" in 1986 by
    national television, told the Channel 2 television program "Magazine"
    his decision had "nothing to do" with criticism leveled at him during
    parliamentary hearings this week. Without elaborating, he said he
    resigned because he "could not take responsibility for an investigation
    that no longer makes progress." 
    
    National Police Commissioner Holger Romander, in a televised interview,
    expressed "great surprise" at Holmer's resignation. 
    
    In his interview, Holmer rejected criticism of his handling of the
    investigation. He said allegations of abuse of power in rounding up
    suspects were groundless since the actions were taken with the
    understanding of prosecutors. Holmer headed the investigation until
    Feb. 5, when he was replaced because of repeated squabbles between
    police investigators and prosecutors. 
    
    Holmer, who became a national celebrity for his often colorful comments
    during news conferences in the early stages of the investigation, also
    resigned as an adviser to the current investigative team. 
    
    Minister of Justice Sten Wickbom said in a statement Thursday that
    Holmer's "efforts in the investigation of the murder of Olof Palme have
    been marked by great professional skill and great devotion to the
    difficult job." But state prosecutor Magnus Sjoberg charged in
    Thursday's parliamentary session that Holmer had bypassed prosecutors
    during his stewardship of the investigation. Sjoberg said that was
    "unsatisfacory" and had "unfortunate results." Holmer had focused his
    investigation on a small group of exile Kurds he alleged were behind
    the murder "with 95 percent certainty." 
    
    Civil liberties lawyers charged Holmer detained several suspects, later
    released, for three days without allowing them to see a lawyer. Under
    Swedish law, a suspect has the right to legal counsel within 24 hours
    of being taken into custody. 

Associated Press Thu  4-JUN-1987 11:16                   Palme Case-Newspaper

                  Jury Finds Newspaper Libeled Palme Suspect
    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - A district court has ruled that a newspaper
    libeled a man arrested in the murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme by
    publishing his name and picture. 
    
    The plaintiff, a 34-year-old Swede and member of the anti-communist
    European Labor Party, was arrested shortly after the Feb. 28, 1986
    slaying of the social democratic prime minister. The man, identified by
    police as a suspect in the killing, was later released because key
    evidence against him had collapsed, police said. 
    
    Arbetet newspaper, a social democratic daily in the south Swedish port
    city of Malmo, published the man's name and a picture of him while he
    was held in police custody. Swedish libel law normally dictates that
    police suspects not be identified unless they are charged. 
    
    The nine-member Malmo District Court jury deliberated for six hours
    late Wednesday before delivering the ruling without comment. The court
    will reconvene to consider the man's compensation claims for $32,000 in
    punitive damages and $20,800 for lost income. 
    
    "I don't think the fact that the jury found Arbetet guilty will help me
    here in Sweden," the man told the national news agency TT after the
    jury's ruling. "I'm sure I'll have to move from here sooner or later.
    They have driven me out of the country, that's for sure." 
    
    Neither TT nor other major newspapers published the man's name in
    accounts of the slander trial. Swedish Radio mentioned it in a
    newscast, however. 

 *NI9****                   Copyright 1986 TASS           SISCOM IP 
    
       Olof Palme's Assassination Investigated   
         
       Stockholm June 18.  Tass correspondent Nikolai Vukolov reports:   
         
    Two bullets discovered not far from the place where Olof Palme was shot
    dead were indeed fired from the weapon of the crime. This is the view
    that the new leadership of the search group has taken after
    familiarizing themselves with the results of the chemical analysis of
    the bullets carried out here in the laboratory of the state natural
    sciences and history museum. 
         
    As is known, on that fatal evening of February 28, 1986, when the Palme
    couple were on the way home from a cinema house, the assassin, as
    witnesses testified, fired two shots point-blank into Olof Palme's
    back. One bullet pierced olof palme's chest and bursting the aorta,
    caused profuse bleeding and instant death. The other bullet just grazed
    Lisbet Palme's clothes. 
         
    Specialists then noted that the bullets were unusual, had great
    penetrating power and could only be fired from a large-bore revolver of
    a rare design, probably of the Smith and Wesson magnum hallmark. The
    police used these circumstances as one of the traces that could lead to
    the assassin. 
      
    Doubts about the authenticity of those bullets were expressed later,
    however. It was said that they might have been dropped intentionally at
    the scene of the crime so that the investigation take a wrong turn. But
    the analysis carried out by Professor E. Velin with the use of isotope
    irradiation proved that the lead of which the tips of the bullets are
    made and lead particles on the clothes of the palme couple are
    identical. So one of these bullets killed Olof Palme. 
    
    Will this circumstance lead to the success of the investigation? It is
    difficult to answer this question. As a public opinion poll held by the
    Institute of Market Development showed that majority of Sweden's
    population no longer believes that the police can reveal this crime and
    arrest the assassin. 

                 Received:  19-JUN-1987 00:47                    

    Heard on National Public Radio, this morning.    
    
    A series of Parliamentary hearings on the conduct of the police
    investigations has apparently concluded. A report has just been
    announced that is critical of the role played by the National police. I
    was having a hard time following the detail. Bottom line was Carlsson
    reported to have testified, in effect, no further progress in finding
    the killer or confirming any of the several theories (an Iranian hit is
    the most prevalent). 
    
    No doubt there will be more about this on "All Things Considered"
    and in the American press.
    
    Meanwhile, I invite anyone who has any details or opinions to
    contribute them here.
    
    [Gosh, I miss not having the AP Newswire online!]

    re .-1
    
    I see by the gap between .-2 and .-1 that much water has flowed
    under the bridge, and that no one has contributed info on the "Ebbe
    Carlsson Affair" (no relation of Ingvar). I cannot give any summary
    that would do justice to the truth here (too many details and intricate
    sub-plots), but a good summary in English may be read in this week's
    issue of "The Economist" (that's the British Time/Newsweek, despite
    its name).
    
    Brief background: The current parliamentary hearings were triggered
    by the discovery that a well-connected private person, Ebbe Carlsson,
    had been conducting his own investigation of the Palme assasination
    with knowledge/support of Anna Greta Leijon, the Swedish Minister
    of Justice (Attorney General).
    

It's a sort of Swedish Watergate that has been keeping the newspapers
happy all summer.  In brief, and from memory,

-- Anna-Greta Lejion, the (now ex-) Minister of Justice wrote a
   letter of recommendation for Ebbe Carlsson to introduce him to
   some Western intelligence services.  His private investigation
   was then making an end-run around the national police investigation.
   Carlsson is a businessman with very good personal connections to the
   people who run the country.

-- The bodyguards of one of the top police investigators (now ex-), were
   caught smuggling illegal weapons and illegal wiretapping/bugging electronics
   into Sweden.

-- There's been a lot of hinting at "snake-pits" of sexuality involving
   Ebbe Carlsson and a variety of other top bureaucrats.  In particular,
   the papers have noted that he is the ex-housemate of one of the Swedish
   police chiefs (male) (now ex-) and wondered whether personal relations
   have influenced governmental decisions.  Of course, the papers are only
   asking this for the purest of motives, and hardly believe that they
   will sell any extra copies.  (After all, there was a triple murder
   last month and the left-overs from a very strange murder trial that
   provides them plenty of material.)

-- Carlsson's theory, that Palme was assassinated by a gang of Kurdish
   terrorists, was demolished when the person he accused of pulling the
   gun stated that he read about the murder when he worked on his paper-route
   that morning in Malm�, several hundred kilometers away.

The "affair" seems to be a way to express displeasure with the handling of
the murder investigation, which has not resulted in anything useful.  It has
also given some fresh wind to the conspiration theories that Palme was
assassinated by elements in one or another of the Swedish secret services.

Finally, the top level of the Socialdemocrats consist of a "best and
brightest" gang that roomed together at college, then went into politics
in the early 1960's.  Carlsson was part of that gang, and there is some
feeling that this oligarchy isn't exactly what Sweden needs right now.

It is also summer, when people have time on their hands.  (The wife/press-
secretary of one of the other ministers put a very critical article into
one of the other papers while she and her husband were canoeing on one
of the lakes.  Her husband, of course, didn't share her opinion.

Oh yes, there's a national election next month.

Martin.

    
    STOCKHOLM, Sweden,
    Prosecuters Monday finally got compelling testimony to back up their
    attempts to convict Christer Pettersson of killing Prime Minister Olof
    Palme. Palme's widow, Lisbeth pointed at Pettersson in court and said
    she was "absolutely certain" he was nearby when Palme was shot to death
    on a Stockholm street Feb. 28, 1986. "It will be difficult to let him
    go," criminal lawyer Clas Borgstom, who is observing the trial, told 
    Swedish radio. "If the court lets him off, they will have to justify 
    their decision." Defense lawyer Arne Liljeros said at a news conference
    his client felt "distressed" after Lisbeth Palme's testimony.
    Several witnesses have recanted statements identifying Pettersson, 42
    an ex-convict. Pettersson spoke up during Lisbeth Palme's testimony
    over the objections of Judge Carl-Anton Spak:
    "If Olof Palme in his grave could have heard this he wouldn't like it"
    The SAGA still unfolds.
    
    (Special for USA Today, newspaper issue of June 20th 1989.)
    
    boateng.
    

Group soc.culture.nordic
article 677                                     

From: [email protected] (Syst{ Kari)
Subject: Re: The Palme trial
Organization: Tampere University of Technology, Finland

In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Edgar Leon)
writes:
>Has the trial of Christer Petersson, the man suspected of
>murdering Palme, finished?

    Yes, the court said quilty. The penalty was proson for rest of his
    life. However, he has right to complaint and because the evidences are
    not very strong the decision may change in further trials.           

Kari Systa      [email protected] ([email protected], ..!mcvax!tut!ks, [email protected])
Tampere Univ. Technology              Telefax:                 Phone
Software System Laboratory         +358 31 162913        work: +358 31 162585
Po. Box. 527, SF-33101 Tampere, Finland                  home: +358 31 177412

Group soc.culture.nordic
article 693

From: [email protected] (Lars-Henrik Eriksson)
Subject: Re: The Palme trial
Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Stockholm (Kista), Sweden

In article <[email protected]>, ks@karikukko (Syst{ Kari) writes:
>In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Edgar Leon)
writes:
>>Has the trial of Christer Petersson, the man suspected of
>>murdering Palme, finished?
>Yes, the court said quilty. The penalty was proson for rest of his life.
>However, he has right to complaint and because the evidences are not very
>strong the decision may change in further trials.                           

    The decision of the court was not unanimous. The professional judges
    wanted to free him for lack of evidence, while the lay judges found him
    guilty. In the lower courts, lay judges are in majority, but in higher
    courts they are not, so there is some chance that he will be aquitted
    in a higher court.

    Personally I think the entire case is a mess and I am not convinced
    that he is guilty. 
    
    --

    Lars-Henrik Eriksson
    Swedish Institute of Computer Science
    Box 1263
    S-164 28  KISTA, SWEDEN              

    Finnish broadcasting company just told that Pettersson was acquitted
    from charge in the higher court because of week evidence. At least
    two person said that he couldn't be at Sveav�gen when Palme was
    murdered, they have no weapon, no powder marks and so on.
    
    -risto

    From: [email protected] (Thomas Sj�land)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Trial of "42-year-old" for Palma's murder
    Date: 12 Oct 89 13:10:44 GMT
    Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista

    The person prosecuted  was let free by the appeals court ("Hovr�tten")
    just one hour ago due to lack of conclusive evidence against him. The
    decision was unanimous among the 100% law professionals in this jury.

    The comments from the media here is that is it now highly unlikely that
    this decision will be appealed to the supreme court, since even the
    highest prosecutor of the country must convince the supreme court that
    there are special reasons to accept an appeal from this side. The
    chances that someone else could be put on trial for this murder are now
    practically nil, unless the evidence situation changes radically.

    This decision must be seen as a victory for legal security, however
    frustrating it might seem not to have a solution to the murder in the
    records.


    --
    Thomas Sj�land
    SICS, PO Box 1263, S-164 28 KISTA, SWEDEN
    Tel: +46 8 752 15 42    Ttx: 812 61 54 SICS S   Fax: +46 8 751 72 30
    Internet: [email protected] or {mcvax,munnari,ukc,unido}!enea!sics.se!alf    

    From: [email protected]
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: The last Palme Crusade ?
    Date: 13 Oct 89 09:11:10 GMT
    Organization: Ericsson Radar Electronics, Stockholm, Sweden

    On Thursday 12-th October the suspect Christer Petterson was released
    from custody after a unison decision of the 'Svea hovr�tt' The formal
    sentence will fall on 2-nd November and today it seems unlikely that
    the national prosecutor will drive the case further to the Supreme
    Court.

    One major reason for the decision not to verdict Petterson may be the
    judges irritation of bad workmanship showed by the police and attorneys
    in their preparations for the trial.

    As no technical evidence existed the trial had to be built on
    testimonies from people who were around the crime scene that night
    three years ago, foremost of these testimonials was that of Lisbet
    Palme...  As Lisbet is a psychologist by profession and by her own
    estimate have particular competence in making rational observations she
    made an arrangement with an assistant on the attorneys office (Solveig
    Ribberdahl) to take a look at the suspect on the police station to see
    if he resembled the murderer.

    Neither the suspects lawyer nor the attorneys handling the case was
    informed on this until they received a copy of a protocol that
    Ribberdahl had wrote from memory some days after the event. The normal
    procedure (even with tecnichal evidence to back up a case) is that both
    the lawyer and the attorney attends to this 'vittnes- konfrontation'
    and in addition the event is documented with audio and/or video - tape
    ( I suppose that the attorneys leading the investigation got a bit of a
    long face when they received Ribberdahls note ;-)  This ends up a long
    lasting tradition of bad acheivments from the murder investigators, as
    of today the manfall has been one police director of Stockholm county
    (Hans Holmer), one national police director (Lars ]hmanson) and one
    minister of justice (Anna-greta Leijon). I guess that this leaves the
    judges as the last stronghold of professional exercise in the Swedish
    'offantliga sektorn'.

    As for the former suspect Christer Petterson he went home to his
    apartment where he played cards and consumed Explorer Vodka ( the
    choice of MEN in Sweden, Absolut is for the Yuppies :-) together with
    his neighbor (a retired older man that BYW took care of Pettersons cat
    during the custody time)  The apartment was besieged by press folk that
    wanted to know about his reactions to all that has happened. What
    Christer Petterson said was 'I am no mindless butcher, it is a tragedy
    for the nation what has happened and I do not want to seek some
    personal advantages by suing the state for indemnity' ( I think he may
    reconsider this when he has sobered up 8-)

    Not all took the event so casually, journalists that wanted to question
    Lisbet Palme in 'Gamla Stan' was assaulted by the widow who snatched a
    camera, the bodyguards had to drag her into a waiting car that quickly
    leaved for an unknown destination.

    The general feeling is now that the investigation will peter out to
    nothing and the case remaining an unsolved mystery forever.

                                                    Leif Sterner

    Re: Previous
    
    It appears to me (after reading.43) that this Christer Petterson guy was
    allowed to go free mainly due to some :legal technicalities: 
    
    Will some blame this form of justice on "over liberalization" ?