PRETORIA - The former chief of a covert South African police hit squad said yesterday an apartheid spy had been involved in the 1986 assassination of the Swedish prime minister, Olof Palme, who was friendly with the ANC.
Mr Eugene de Kock, a colonel in the apartheid era police, made the allegation while testifying in mitigation of sentence before the judge who has convicted him of six murders and other crimes.
"It [the Palme murder] was one of Craig Williamson's `Operation Long Reach' projects. I wanted it to be investigated before it was covered up," he said. Mr De Kock has applied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for amnesty for his crimes.