Suspect Admits To Killing Swedish FM
"He admitted to the crime," but prosecutors were not yet ready to reveal exactly what he had said Krister Petersson told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The TT news agency reported that the confession came during an interrogation session on Tuesday, January 6, which had been convened at the request of Mijailovic’s lawyer, Peter Althin.
Althin told TT that during the interrogation, which lasted around an hour, the 25-year-old suspect gave a detailed account of events on the day of the murder, September 10, 2003.
Lindh, who had been tipped to become Swedish prime minister one day, was fatally stabbed in a crowded department store, a murder that stunned Sweden.
Mijailovic was arrested later in September 2003 and police matched his DNA with DNA found at the murder scene, according to prosecutors.
Althin said Wednesday he had not sought any further information from prosecutors after working his way through a 1,000-page summary of the investigation.
The lawyer had until Wednesday to make a request for additional information and his decision to approve the report clears the way for a speedy indictment of his client.
Mijailovic is now likely to be formally indicted on January 12, TT said, while Petersson told AFP that he expected the trial to open a week later at the latest.
However, Althin said the Stockholm district court had set no date yet and that it might order a psychiatric examination of Mijailovic before the trial could get underway.
Before Tuesday, Mijailovic had denied any involvement in the stabbing, although media reports said that he had confessed to several people, including his mother.
The Swedish media has widely reported that police have enough evidence to secure a guilty verdict, even without a confession, after securing DNA samples from a bloodied knife, a baseball cap and a pair of trousers which were found at the murder scene.
Petersson said a detailed analysis of Mijailovic’s statement would determine how much witness testimony was still needed to complete the case against him.
Born in Sweden of Serb parents, Mijailovic has a criminal record and was sentenced in 1997 for attacking his father with a kitchen knife.
Swedish media reports have speculated that Mijailovic, believed to be mentally unstable, was obsessed by several famous people, and hated Lindh for backing the NATO air strikes against Belgrade during the war in Kosovo in 1999.
If convicted, Mijailovic could face a sentence of up to life in prison, although in practice no one serves more than 14 years in Swedish jails.
Swedish press reports said on Saturday, January 3, that the family of Lindh will sue the suspected killer for damages after being given the green light by a Stockholm court.
