Word: pettersson
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...decision left many Swedes more dissatisfied than ever with the bungled investigation of the February 1986 murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme. Last week a panel of judges found Carl Gustaf Christer Pettersson, 42, a former mental patient with a long criminal record, guilty of the slaying and sentenced him to life in prison. The court split 6 to 2, with six lay judges convinced that Pettersson gunned down Palme. But the two professional judges on the panel voted for acquittal...
Throughout the five-week trial, Pettersson, who had previously been convicted of more than 60 offenses, including the 1970 bayonet slaying of a man near the Palme murder scene, maintained his innocence. The key witness against him was Palme's widow Lisbet, who told the court she was absolutely certain that Pettersson was the man she saw when she turned around after her husband fell. An appeals court will decide in September if there was sufficient evidence to convict Pettersson...
...tension fairly crackled in the Stockholm courtroom as Lisbet Palme, the widow of assassinated Prime Minister Olof Palme, was asked whether the man she had seen just after the shooting of her husband more than three years ago was present. "Yes," she answered, indicating Christer Pettersson, 42, a confessed drug addict who is charged with murdering Palme. "Are you sure?" asked the prosecutor. After looking briefly at Pettersson, Mrs. Palme answered with a second...
...they had initially been swayed by hopes of sharing in the $7.5 million reward offered by the government. The court has been sharply criticized for agreeing to preconditions set by Lisbet Palme for her testimony, including a ban on tape recorders and television cameras. The prosecutors, whose case against Pettersson is built on circumstantial evidence, have yet to come up with a murder weapon or a motive...
Once before, in 1986, Pettersson was questioned by the Palme investigation team, which has faced numerous charges of mismanagement. But the suspect was released for lack of evidence. This time witnesses identified him as the mysterious "Grand Man" seen loitering outside the theater Palme and his wife attended the night of his death. And now Pettersson's roommate has undermined the suspect's alibi that he was on his way home at the time of the shooting. Swedish newspaper reports say he possessed a large-caliber weapon and limped just as the assassin was seen to do while fleeing...