Sweden's Supreme Court will announce today whether it will allow an alcoholic petty thief who was once convicted, but then acquitted, of the murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme to be tried again.
Mr Palme was shot dead in the centre of Stockholm in February 1986 as he walked home from the cinema with his wife, Lisbet. He died almost instantly and the gunman vanished without trace.
However, after a bungled investigation, police eventually charged Mr Christer Pettersson with the murder. Mr Pettersson, who had a conviction for a previous killing, always protested his innocence and in 1989 an appeal court overturned his conviction for the Palme murder.
But the police still believe that he is indeed Palme's killer and have asked the Supreme Court to allow a new trial.
"If the Supreme Court says yes to a retrial, we are ready to start immediately, although it will probably take the court a month or so to get prepared," a spokesman for the prosecutor general's office, Mr Magnus Nordangard, said. "If the court says no, then we will just continue our research into the Palme murder, trying to find new evidence, and maybe apply for a retrial at another date." Mr Pettersson says he is feeling the strain ahead of the Supreme Court announcement, expected early today.
