Sweden's Crown Prosecutor is to ask the Supreme Court to reopen the case against the man acquitted of the murder of Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme, in 1986.

Palme was shot by an unknown gunman on February 28, 1986, as he walked down a busy Stockholm street with his wife after leaving a cinema. The couple had no bodyguards with them, at Palme's request.

Christer Pettersson, now 50, was convicted of the killing in July 1989 by a Stockholm court but was subsequently acquitted by an appeals court in November of the same year for lack of evidence.

Reports in the Swedish press indicate that new information about the murder has been received by investigators over the past year which would justify reopening the case against Pettersson.

In the past year, lawyers for two men who are now dead have presented death-bed testimony indicating that Pettersson was the killer.

Individuals from Pettersson's circle of friends have also come forward with new testimony, as has a witness to the crime who did not come forward in the 1989 trial.

Pettersson himself claimed during the earlier trials that he was in his apartment at the time of the shooting.

The Palme murder has mystified Swedes for over a decade, and many have resigned themselves to the fact that they may never know who pulled the trigger or why.

The murder weapon, a .357 Smith and Wesson revolver, has never been located and no motive has ever been established.

The Supreme Court is not expected to make a decision on the retrial before April.
 

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