Palme Widow Points Out Killer in Court, Says ‘I’m Certain’

The widow of Prime Minister Olof Palme stood in court today 30 feet from the defendant in her husband’s murder trial and identified him as the killer.

Lisbeth Palme, who was leaving a movie with her husband when he was shot to death the night of Feb. 28, 1986, said she clearly saw the defendant’s face just after the shooting on a Stockholm street.

Upon cross-examination, however, she said she had not seen the man’s hands, and thus could not say whether he had a gun.

Palme’s testimony was crucial to the case against Christer Pettersson, a 42-year-old Swede with a long criminal record. He was arrested in December.

Pettersson, wearing a blue-and-white sport coat, was brought into the heavily guarded courtroom at the end of Palme’s testimony.

Prosecutor Anders Helin asked her if she could point out the man she saw seconds after the shooting. Without hesitation, she pointed at Pettersson, who was sitting across the room.

“I’m certain,” she told Helin.

“If Olof Palme in his heaven could have heard this, he wouldn’t have liked it,” said Pettersson, interrupting over the objections of Judge Carl-Anton Spak.

“If you believe in what you’re saying, it’s OK. But otherwise, it’s not,” said Pettersson in a calm, clear voice.

Guards took him from the room, and Palme made no reply.

“You haven’t got a camera in your head,” said defense attorney Arne Liljeros. “How can you be certain? Isn’t it wishful thinking on your part to close the matter?”

“It will never be closed for me,” she said.

Saying she still suffers “a deep wound,” she had refused to testify with Pettersson present in the Stockholm district courtroom.

However, the court ruled after she began testifying with Pettersson outside the courtroom that he should be brought in for an identification.