STOCKHOLM: Swedish prosecutors on Wednesday named their main suspect in the 1986 killing of prime minister Olof Palme, closing the murder case that has gripped the Scandinavian country for more than three decades.
The suspect was named as Stig Engstrom, a former advertising consultant known for his staunch opposition to Palme’s leftwing policies and who is now dead.
Palme was gunned down on the evening of February 28, 1986, after leaving a Stockholm cinema with his wife, having dismissed his bodyguards for the evening.
He was shot in the back by his assailant, who fled the scene and left the 59-year-old to die in a pool of blood on the sidewalk.
The gruesome murder shocked Swedes, and the country is said to have “lost its innocence” that day.
More than 10,000 people have been questioned over the years, and 134 people have confessed to the crime though none has been credibly tied to it.
Chief prosecutor Krister Petersson said they had zeroed in on Engstrom as the main suspect.
“Because he is dead, I can’t press charges against him, and have therefore decided to close the investigation,” he said.
Petersson acknowledged that while “only a court can determine guilt... I am convinced there is evidence of reasonable suspicion.”
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.
Media have suggested over the years that he was trying to cover up his role as the gunman. He died in 2000 aged 66.
Palme’s son Marten told Swedish Radio he believed prosecutors made the right call.
“I think Engstrom is guilty. Given the current situation, I think it is reasonable to close the investigation,” he said.
Another man was convicted of the crime in July 1989 after Palme’s widow identified him in a widely criticized line-up.
But Christer Pettersson — a petty criminal and drug addict who is no relation to the current chief prosecutor — was freed months later by an appeals court which dismissed her testimony on a technicality.
Pettersson died in 2004, while Palme’s widow passed away in 2018.
After Wednesday’s announcement Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said it had been “a day full of emotions” and stressed that it was “not the government’s place to judge prosecutors’ conclusions.”
“For a country’s prime minister to be murdered is a national trauma. It is my hope that this wound can now heal.”
Chief prosecutor Petersson said investigators believe Engstrom acted alone, but could not “completely dismiss (the idea) that he could have been part of a conspiracy.”
He said Engstrom told investigators early on that he had arrived at the scene moments after the shots were fired, and left before police arrived.
Engstrom said he had turned Palme on his side, but police were never able to confirm that assertion.
“What was strange when we went through the material was that none of the other witnesses have identified him as being present at the crime scene,” Petersson said.
Yet, “he told investigators quite a bit about how he acted at the crime scene“
Petersson stressed Engstrom’s political views as a possible reason for wanting Palme dead.
A Social Democrat known as a great orator, Palme was a controversial figure who infuriated Washington with his vocal opposition to the US war in Vietnam.
He also backed communist governments in Cuba and Nicaragua.
At home, he was at odds with the country’s business leaders and military, and spoke out against nuclear power.
Engstrom “had an adverse opinion of Palme and his politics,” Petersson said.
“We know that he was struggling with financial problems and living beyond his means... He also had alcohol problems,” the chief prosecutor added.
He also noted that Engstrom had access to weapons through acquaintances and had had weapons training.
The gun used in Palme’s murder has never been recovered, though nearly 800 weapons were tested in the course of the long investigation.
“We have no clear information that can place a weapon in the hands of Stig Engstrom,” Petersson stressed.
“But considering what happened, he must have had a weapon in his hand that night,” he said.
Swedish police botched the investigation early on.
Crucially, they failed to cordon off the murder scene properly, allowing onlookers to walk around and destroy potential forensic evidence, a blunder that still haunts investigators today.
The investigation could be reopened in the future if new evidence emerges.
Sweden names chief suspect in PM murder, closes probe
https://arab.news/pq9m2
Sweden names chief suspect in PM murder, closes probe
- Palme was gunned down on the evening of Feb. 28, 1986
- The suspect was named as Stig Engstrom, who is now dead
Jakarta NGO to rebuild Indonesian hospital as Palestinians return to north Gaza
- Indonesia Hospital in North Gaza was opened in 2015, built from donations of the Indonesian people
- It was a frequent target of Israeli forces, who accused the facility of sheltering Palestinian armed groups
JAKARTA: A Jakarta-based nongovernmental organization has committed to rebuilding the Indonesia Hospital in northern Gaza as Palestinians began returning to the area on Monday.
The Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahiya, funded by the Indonesian NGO Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, was one of the first targets hit when Israel began its assault on Gaza in October 2023.
As relentless Israeli attacks pushed the enclave’s healthcare system to the brink of collapse, the Indonesia Hospital had stood as one of the last functioning health facilities in the north.
“Since the war started, the Indonesia Hospital has served as one of the main healthcare centers for residents of Gaza in the north. It has been attacked multiple times, damaging parts of the building itself and also various health equipment,” Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of MER-C’s board of trustees in Jakarta, told Arab News on Monday.
“We need to rebuild and fill it up with all the necessary health equipment … It is our moral commitment to rebuilding the hospital.”
Israel has frequently targeted medical facilities in the Gaza Strip, saying that they are used by Palestinian armed groups.
The Indonesia Hospital opened in 2015 and was officially inaugurated by the country’s then-Vice President Jusuf Kalla in 2016.
The four-story general hospital stands on a 16,200 sq. meter plot of land near the Jabalia refugee camp in North Gaza, donated by the local government in 2009.
The hospital’s construction and equipment were financed from donations of the Asia nation’s people, as well as organizations including the Indonesian Red Cross Society.
Since it opened almost a decade ago, MER-C continued to send volunteers to help. A couple of them stayed in Gaza until late last year, as MER-C also sent medical volunteers to the besieged enclave since March as part of a larger emergency deployment led by the World Health Organization.
The Indonesia Hospital was treating about 1,000 people at one point during Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 47,300 people and injured over 111,000.
“Many Indonesians are looking forward for the Indonesia Hospital to return to normal operations again, and this is the trust that MER-C keeps close because the hospital is a symbol of unity between Indonesians and Palestinians,” Murad said.
“Healthcare is an urgent need for Palestinians, so we want to offer our support here in our field of expertise.”
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians began returning to the remains of their destroyed homes in north Gaza on Monday, after Israel opened the Netzarim corridor, a 7 km strip of land controlled by Israeli forces that cuts off the enclave’s north from the rest of the territory.
“We hope Israel will continue to give access for Gaza residents to return to their homes in the north peacefully and not breach the ceasefire agreement in any way,” Murad said.
‘Tidal wave of Islamophobia’ in UK, says outgoing MCB chief
- Zara Mohammed’s 4-year tenure involved responses to nationwide rioting, COVID-19 pandemic
- ‘There has been such a normalization of Islamophobic rhetoric without it being challenged or condemned,’ she tells BBC
LONDON: The UK is suffering from a “tidal wave of Islamophobia,” the outgoing leader of one of the country’s largest Muslim bodies has warned.
Zara Mohammed has served as the first female leader of the Muslim Council of Britain since 2021, and through her tenure tackled nationwide riots last year, the COVID-19 pandemic, and being frozen out of government contact.
Ahead of her departure as MCB general secretary on Saturday, Mohammed spoke to the BBC about the difficulties she has faced over the last four years.
“It was the Southport riots for us that made it really quite alarming,” she said, referring to nationwide disorder last year in the wake of a stabbing attack in Southport.
“It was so visceral. We were watching on our screens: People breaking doors down, stopping cars, attacking taxi drivers, smashing windows, smashing mosques,” she told the BBC. “The kind of evil we saw was really terrifying and I felt like, am I even making a difference?”
The rioting was partly triggered by false online rumors that the attacker was a Muslim asylum-seeker.
Yet the government at the time had refused to engage with Mohammed, and the largest umbrella Muslim organization in Britain “wasn’t being talked to,” she said.
“The justification was there, the urgency, the necessity of engagement was there, British Muslims were under attack, mosques were under attack.”
In the year since the war in Gaza began, monitoring group Tell Mama UK recorded 4,971 instances of Islamophobic hate in Britain — the highest figure in 14 years.
The MCB had done “a lot of community building and political advocacy” in a bid to tackle the problem, yet this had failed to shift mainstream narratives surrounding British Muslims, Mohammed said.
“There has been such a normalization of Islamophobic rhetoric without it being challenged or condemned,” she added.
“We could say we’re making a difference but then what is being seen in national discourse does not seem to translate.”
Abuse of Muslim politicians across the UK, including former Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, demonstrates a broader trend of rising Islamophobia, Mohammed said.
“You’re constantly firefighting. Did we make British Muslims’ lives better? On one hand, yes, because we raised these issues, we took them to a national platform. But with Islamophobia, we’re still having the same conversation,” she added.
“We still haven’t been able to break through, whether it’s government engagement, Islamophobia or social mobility.”
Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan, wife appeal graft convictions: lawyer
- Imran Khan was sentenced to 14 years and his wife to seven earlier this month
- A special graft court found the pair guilty of ‘corruption and corrupt practices’
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi on Monday appealed their convictions for graft, his lawyer said.
Khan was sentenced to 14 years and his wife to seven earlier this month in the latest case to be brought against them.
“We have filed appeals today and in the next few days it will go through clerical processes and then it will be fixed for a hearing,” Khan’s lawyer Khalid Yousaf Chaudhry said.
The papers were filed at the Islamabad High Court.
A special graft court found the pair guilty of “corruption and corrupt practices” over a welfare foundation they established together called the Al-Qadir Trust.
Khan, 72, has been held in custody since August 2023 charged in around 200 cases which he claims are politically motivated.
Kremlin says it has yet to hear from US about a possible Putin-Trump meeting
MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Monday it had yet to receive any signals from the United States about arranging a possible meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump, but remained ready to organize such an encounter.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it appeared a “certain amount of time” was needed before a meeting between the two leaders could take place. He said Russia understood that Washington was still interested in organizing such a meeting.
Putin said on Friday that he and Trump should meet to talk about the Ukraine war and energy prices, issues that the US president has highlighted in the first days of his new administration.
India minister pledges to evict ‘illegal’ immigrants from capital
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s closest political ally has pledged to rid the capital of “illegal’ immigrants if his party wins looming elections, in a forceful appeal to his party’s Hindu constituency.
Interior minister Amit Shah said every unlawful migrant from neighboring Bangladesh would be expelled from New Delhi “within two years” if his party succeeded in next month’s provincial polls.
“The current state government is giving space to illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingyas,” Shah told an audience of several thousand at Sunday’s rally.
“Change the government and we will rid Delhi of all illegals.”
India shares a porous border stretching thousands of kilometers with Muslim-majority Bangladesh, and illegal migration from its eastern neighbor has been a hot-button political issue for decades.
There are no reliable estimates of the number of Bangladeshis living illegally in Delhi, a city to which millions have flocked in search of employment from elsewhere in India over recent decades.
Critics of Modi and Shah’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accuse the party of using the issue as a dog whistle against Muslims to galvanize its Hindu-nationalist support base during elections.
Delhi, a sprawling megacity home to more than 30 million people, has been governed for most of the past decade by charismatic chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Kejriwal rode to power as an anti-corruption crusader a decade ago and his profile has bestowed upon him the mantle of one of the chief rivals to Modi and Shah’s party.
His popularity has been burnished by extensive water and electricity subsidies for the capital’s millions of poorer residents.
But he spent several months behind bars last year on accusations his party took kickbacks in exchange for liquor licenses, along with several fellow party leaders.
Kejriwal denies wrongdoing and characterised the charges as a political witch-hunt by Modi’s government, and despite resigning as chief minister last year vowed to return to the office if his party won re-election.
The BJP has led a spirited campaign in its efforts to dislodge Kejriwal’s party ahead of the February 5 vote.
Modi is expected to make a pilgrimage to the ongoing Kumbh Mela, the biggest festival on the Hindu calendar, to bathe in the sacred Ganges river on the day of the Delhi assembly vote.
Results of the election will be published on February 8.
