SWEDEN: The man who murdered Sweden's Foreign Minister, Ms Anna Lindh, has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Mijailo Mijailovic (25) admitted stabbing Ms Lindh in a department store in central Stockholm on September 10th last year but pleaded not guilty to murder. He claimed inner voices told him to carry out the attack.
The Swedish courts dismissed his claim but judged instead that Mijailovic planned the attack and his intention was to kill.
"He attacked Anna Lindh in a conscious and, for her, completely surprising way," stated the judgement. "He used a lethal weapon and held the knife with both hands ... the attack was carried out with power. The place and size of the stab-wounds indicate that the purpose was to kill."
Ms Lindh, one of Sweden's most popular politicians and tipped as the next prime minister, was stabbed up to eight times in the abdomen, chest and arm while shopping with a friend in the NK department store. One of the stabs went through the bone of her forearm. Another penetrated her liver. She died from her injuries in the early hours of the morning of September 11th, following several hours of surgery.
The fatal stabbing came just four days before Sweden's referendum on the euro. Ms Lindh had been one of the most visible campaigners on the Yes side. Her death had been expected to spark sympathy for her side of the debate. However, the country voted decisively against joining the single currency.
Ms Lindh's murder evoked painful memories for Swedes of the unsolved 1986 murder of the Swedish Prime Minister, Mr Olof Palme. Swedish police were under pressure to find her killer and two weeks after the murder, Mijailovic was arrested.
DNA evidence linked him directly to the knife and to clothes Ms Lindh was wearing at the time of the stabbing.
In January this year, Mijailovic admitted attacking Ms Lindh. He told police that he took a wrong turn on his way out of the NK store and saw Ms Lindh. "Then I heard the voices," he told police. "They told me to attack. I couldn't resist the voices."
Mijailovic was found guilty of murder, but sentencing was delayed pending a full psychiatric assessment. The report deemed that Mijailovic wasn't suffering from a serious mental illness, thereby paving the way for a prison sentence.
A life-sentence in Sweden follows its literal meaning: the convicted spends the rest of their life in prison but may seek a reduction in sentence after 10 years.
In such circumstances, sentence can be reduced to around 20 years.
Legal experts don't expect Mijailovic to spend more than 25 years in prison.