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'Yes, I killed Anna Lindh'
07/01/2004 14:56 - (SA)
Stockholm, Sweden - The man suspected by police of fatally stabbing Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh last year confessed to the crime, his lawyer said on Wednesday, adding it was not politically motivated.
Peter Althin said Mijailo Mijailovic, 25, confessed to the crime on Tuesday while he was being interrogated by police and investigators.
In an interview with Swedish radio, Althin said Lindh's stabbing - which occurred a few days before a nationwide referendum on whether to adopt the euro - wasn't political.
"I cannot go into any details, but I can say as much as that there is no political motive," he said, adding that Mijailovic said it was a random act.
Chief prosecutor Agneta Blidberg said that the confession would likely result in a swifter trial and increased the likelihood of a guilty verdict.
News of the confession swept across the country and Swedish newspapers and television began airing untouched images of Mijailovic and referring to him by name. Originally, most media has only referred to him as the 25-year-old suspect and ran blurred photos of his face.
Lead investigator Leif Jennekvist said the results of the preliminary investigation had been enough to charge Mijailovic.
Mijailovic has been in custody since September 24, two weeks after the 46-year-old Lindh was stabbed several times in the stomach in a Stockholm department store while shopping with a friend. Doctors worked for several hours to save Lindh, but she died on the morning of September 11, plunging the country into mourning.
Blidberg said that Mijailovic could be charged with Lindh's murder as early as January 12 and a trial could start a week later. The start time, however, depends on whether Mijailovic will undergo a psychiatric screening ahead of the trial.
"But that's up to the court to decide," she said.
Althin had no immediate comment about the charges or trial. Neither did he say why Mijailovic, a Swede of Yugoslav origin with previous convictions for assault, illegal weapons possession and making death threats, confessed to the killing.
Mijailovic likely faces life in prison. Sweden, like other European countries, doesn't have capital punishment.
Blidberg has said that DNA traces found on the knife used to stab Lindh and on Mijailovic's clothes matches his own, adding that the evidence against the suspect is good.
Lindh, touted as a future prime minister of the Scandinavian country of nine million, was popular with many Swedes. Her death shocked the country and left it numb just days ahead of a national referendum on whether to adopt the euro, which failed.
Police have maintained her death was not the result of her strong pro-euro stance, calling it merely a random act of violence.
The trial against Mijailovic is expected to dominate Scandinavian media, particularly in Sweden, which is still haunted by the unsolved killing of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986.
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