Olof Palme

Swedish prosecutors on Wednesday named their main suspect in the 1986 killing of Prime Minister Olof Palme.

Prosecutors also closed the probe into the murder case.

The suspect was named as Stig Engstrom, a former advertising consultant who is now dead.

Palme was gunned down as he took a late-night walk after visiting a cinema in central Stockholm with his wife, Lisbet on February 28, 1986.

Investigators had over the years interviewed more than 10,000 people, and 134 possible suspects had confessed to the murder.

Chief prosecutor Krister Petersson said they had zeroed in on Engstrom as the main suspect.

“As the person is deceased, I cannot bring charges against him and have decided to discontinue the investigation. In my opinion, Stig Engström is the prime suspect.”

“To a large extent, we have been at the mercy of the police investigative work that was performed closer to the time of the crime.

“All in all, there are a number of circumstances that point to Engström. Had the current Palme investigation group been in charge 34 years ago, Engström would have been remanded in custody had he been unable to provide satisfactory explanations for his movements and actions. My assessment is that there would have been sufficient evidence to have him detained in custody,”said Petersson.

Engstrom, who was 52 at the time of the murder, was questioned as a witness early on but police deemed him unreliable after he changed his story several times. He died in 2000 aged 66.