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Mock trial against Stig Engström for the murder of Olof Palme

Professor Christian Dahlman together with the prosecutor, defence counsel and panel of judges. Photo.
Professor Christian Dahlman together with the prosecutor, defence counsel and panel of judges.

On 5 May 2025, a mock trial was held at the Faculty of Law in Lund, in a hypothetical prosecution of Stig Engström for the murder of Olof Palme.

On the evening of 28 February 1986, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot dead in central Stockholm as he was returning home from the cinema with his wife Lisbeth Palme. The killer ran into a dark alley and vanished.

Thirty-four years later, in June 2020, the police investigation was closed, and the lead investigator, Krister Petersson, held a press conference where he presented Stig Engström as the probable killer. At the time of the murder, Engström worked as a graphic designer in an office building near the crime scene and had died in 2000. Since Engström was no longer alive, he could not be brought to trial.

The panel of judges at the mock trial included Jelte Hielkema, Chief Judge of the Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court of Appeal (Netherlands), Riku Jaakkola, Chief Judge of the District Court of Etelä-Pohjanmaa (Finland), Stefania Riccio, Justice of the Supreme Court of Rome (Italy), and Mark Schweizer, President of the Swiss Federal Patent Court.

The roles of prosecutor and defense counsel in the mock trial were played by Associate Professor Lena Wahlberg and Dr. David Reidhav.

The video of the entire mock trial is available on YouTube (in English):

The Mock Trial against Stig Engström for the Murder of Olof Palme