A Swede who once killed a man with a bayonet makes his first court appearance Friday as a suspect in the 1986 murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.
Prosecutors Thursday asked a Stockholm District Court to order the man held, saying there was good reason to believe he was the gunman who shot Palme on a winter night almost three years ago."We have interviewed the man further, and we consider there is good reason to believe that the man murdered Olof Palme," said prosecutor Jorgen Almbladh after the remand application.
Hans Olvebro, head of the police investigation, told Swedish television the investigation was pointing more and more toward the man's guilt.
"Otherwise we wouldn't have gone this far," he said.
The 41-year-old Swede, Christer Pettersson, was detained by police on Wednesday and has been interrogated since then.
Swedish television reported he had been identified in a lineup as the man seen prowling the streets around the murder area on the night Palme was killed.
It said Pettersson may not have acted on his own but could have taken orders from another well-known criminal, currently serving a life sentence for bomb attacks on Swedish tax offices.
The two, who had met in prison, lived together for a while in 1983 and shared a strong hatred for Palme, television said.
Neither police nor prosecutors would confirm the reports.
Defense lawyer Arne Liljeros said his client had denied the charges, adding he would ask for his immediate release at the remand hearing.
"You have taken the wrong man," Liljeros quoted his client as saying after the arrest.