Lindh suspect tested by shrink

2003-10-07 13:43

Stockholm - Psychiatric testing of a suspect in the murder of Sweden's foreign minister Anna Lindh has been completed and a classified report submitted to a Stockholm court, the clinic that examined him said on Tuesday.

"We have submitted our conclusions to Stockholm's district court. It is a confidential document," the head of Huddinge hospital's Forensic Psychiatry Clinic, Per Granlund, told reporters.

Swedish daily Aftonbladet reported on Tuesday that the 90-minute examination showed that Mijailo Mijailovic, 24, suffered from a psychiatric illness, but provided no further details.

Granlund refused to comment on the Aftonbladet report.

Lindh, who was tipped to one day become prime minister, was fatally stabbed on September 10 while she was shopping at a Stockholm department store, a killing that stunned Sweden.

Fled on foot

She had no bodyguard with her when she was attacked, and her assailant fled the scene on foot.

Mijailovic, who was arrested two weeks after the stabbing, has denied during police questioning that he attacked Lindh.

According to press reports in recent weeks, Mijailovic had a history of psychiatric illness and had sought care in the hours before the murder and the days after, but was each time turned away.

In 1997, he was sentenced to probation after stabbing his father, who survived the attack.

- AFP