STOCKHOLM — After months of denials, the lone suspect in the slaying of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh has confessed, a surprise to prosecutors eager to resolve a case that shocked and grieved the nation. His attorney said yesterday the crime was random.
Mijailo Mijailovic confessed to the Sept. 10 fatal stabbing during questioning Tuesday night, chief prosecutor Agneta Blidberg said.
His attorney, Peter Althin, didn’t disclose the nature of the confession, but said there was no political motivation behind Mrs. Lindh’s stabbing, which happened four days before a bitter referendum on the euro. Mrs. Lindh had been an ardent supporter of the common currency, which Swedes voted not to adopt.
Investigators would not say why the 25-year-old admitted his guilt or under what circumstances.
“I had counted on a confession at some time,” Mrs. Blidberg said. She added that DNA traces found on the knife used to stab Mrs. Lindh match Mr. Mijailovic’s. A DNA match is a sure sign of success at any trial, legal analysts said.
For Swedes, the confession brought a sense of closure in the killing of one of the country’s rising political stars and most-admired women, who seamlessly handled foreign affairs and carried on a happy family life with her two children and husband.
It also brought relief: Many were concerned the Lindh killing might not be solved, as in the case of the late Prime Minister Olof Palme. He was shot in a Stockholm street in 1986, but his killer was never found.
Justice Minister Thomas Bodstroem said the confession should give Swedes peace of mind the right man was caught.
“If the suspect had been sentenced without having confessed, this could have led to years of speculation about whether the right person was sentenced,” he said. “This can be avoided now.”
Mr. Mijailovic is a Swede of Yugoslav origin with previous convictions for assault, possession of illegal weapons and making death threats.
He has been in custody since Sept. 24, two weeks after the 46-year-old Mrs. 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 her, but she died the morning of Sept. 11, plunging the country into mourning.
Now with a confession, prosecutors said Mr. Mijailovic will be charged with murder Jan. 12. A trial could follow within two days before a panel of judges in a courtroom just one subway stop from the upscale store where Mrs. Lindh was killed.
Mr. Mijailovic could be sentenced to between 10 years and life in prison, or sentenced to a mental hospital if found not mentally competent. Sweden, like other European Union countries, does not have capital punishment.
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