Netflix is the subject of a defamation lawsuit in Sweden for its new series about the murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986, authorities in the European country reported Tuesday.
Stig Engström, who worked for an insurance company whose offices are located near the crime scene, was named Palme’s alleged killer last year after 35 years of investigations.
But he was never able to answer the accusation since he died in 2000.
According to the complaint, which the AFP was able to consult, his direct involvement in the Netflix series “The unlikely murderer of Olof Palme” is a “very clear case of defamation.”
The complainant, whose identity is kept confidential, accuses Netflix of having introduced “completely unfounded” elements into his script.
A prominent figure of social democracy, Palme was shot dead on a boulevard in central Stockholm, when he was returning from the cinema with his wife, without bodyguards.
His killer shot him in the back, before fleeing.
Engström appeared as a witness from the beginning of the investigation.
Netflix portrays him as Palme’s killer and his attempts to exonerate himself of the crime can be seen by appearing to investigators and the media as a witness who was simply leaving work late.
A text, at the end of each episode, reminds that the play is a fiction and that Engström has not been shown to be the murderer.