Lindh: life sentence confirmed (original) (raw)

The man who stabbed the Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh to death had his life jail sentence confirmed yesterday by the supreme court, which rejected his plea for leniency on the grounds that he was mentally ill at the time.

Mijailo Mijailovic, 25, the son of Serb immigrants, who admitted the frenzied knife attack last year on Ms Lindh, blamed "voices" in his head.

Public prosecutors and the Lindh family asked for the sentence to be confrmed, Mijailovic's defence argued for the murder charge to be replaced with manslaughter.

The court said: "The investigation cannot be judged to give sufficient support for the conclusion that Mijailovic's psychological disorder at the time of the crime, or now, is of a psychotic nature."

Ms Lindh, married with two children, was killed while out shopping.

Her widower, Bo Holmberg, said: "For me and the children it feels good that the drawn-out trial is finally over.

"It's a shame the motive was never revealed. If you are not seriously psychologically disturbed, you have a motive."