Ex-East German security service probed Swedish premier

The former East German Ministry of State Security, known as the Stasi, conducted its own investigation into the 1986 assassination of then Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, latest reports say. Stockholm newspaper Expressen reported that it had found documents that suggested the office investigated any possible links between the murder and East Germany, as well as possible suspects or groups including foreign security services, right wing groups, the terrorist Red Army Faction also known as Baader-Meinhof gang and others.

News agency DPA, referring to Expressen, write that the Stasi probe fingered an Iranian-born man convicted in Sweden of smuggling refugees for profit, suggesting that his motive for slaying Palme was the Prime Minister’s tougher stance against illegal smuggling of refugees via East Germany among other countries. That information was sent to Stasi head General Erich Mielke in October 1986.
Among documents in the Stasi archives that historian Leif Bjorkman found were copies of Amir Heidari’s passport that indicated he had arrived in Sweden hours before Palme was shot in downtown Stockholm, Expressen said. Palme’s murder on February 28, 1986, generated Sweden’s largest police investigation to date.

Lead investigator Stig Edqvist said the reports of the Stasi probe “were new,” adding that Heidari had been questioned and ruled out. Edqvist added that the Palme investigation team were interested in accessing the Stasi archive material. Heidari, currently serving a sentence for refugee smuggling, said he could prove he had no role in the Palme murder, Expressen said.
Christer Pettersson was convicted of the Palme killing in July 1989 but later acquitted; he died in 2004.