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(AP) John Walker Lindh asked President Bush on Tuesday to commute his 20-year prison sentence for aiding the Taliban. His lawyer, James Brosnahan, said Lindh was a young man in the wrong place at the wrong time. He said that Lindh was fighting alongside the Taliban in a civil war against the Northern Alliance, that he is not a terrorist and that he never fought against U.S. troops. Brosnahan said the sentence should be reduced because Yaser Esam Hamdi, another American citizen captured in Afghanistan on suspicion of aiding the Taliban, is being released after being held for three years as...

(09-28) 11:47 PDT SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- John Walker Lindh asked President Bush on Tuesday to commute his 20-year prison term for his 2002 conviction of aiding the Taliban. His lawyer, James Brosnahan, said Lindh was a young man in the wrong place at the wrong time. He said Lindh was fighting alongside the Taliban in a civil war against the Northern Alliance, that he's not a terrorist and he never fought against U.S. troops. Brosnahan said the sentence should be reduced because Yaser Esam Hamdi also was caught aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan and is now being released after...

The man convicted of the murder of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh last year has appeared in court to appeal against the verdict. Mijailo Mijailovic has admitted stabbing Anna Lindh but says he did not intend to kill her, a vital element in a murder conviction in Sweden. He is also arguing that he was mentally ill at the time of the attack. Mijailovic, 25, says he should be receiving psychiatric care rather than serving a prison sentence. The defendant did not speak at the appeal. He shook his head as he sat beside his lawyer, Peter Althin. Mr Althin...

Just as a legalistic memo defending torture was being leaked out of the Justice Department's inner sancta, the Los Angeles Times was giving all of us a peak at some of the separate but equally legalistic arguments being set forth in defense of John Walker Lindh.     You remember Lindh, also known as Abdul Hamid when he was with the Taliban in Afghanistan, and as Suleyman al-Faris before that, when he was about to begin training with al Qaeda. How could anyone forget him?     Lindh is now doing 20 years for supporting the enemies of the United States. But he turned...

Just as a legalistic memo defending torture was being leaked out of the Justice Department's inner sancta, the Los Angeles Times was giving all of us a peak at some of the separate but equally legalistic arguments being set forth in defense of John Walker Lindh. You remember Mr. Lindh, also known as Abdul Hamid when he was with the Taliban in Afghanistan, and as Suleyman al-Faris before that, when he was about to begin training with al-Qaida. How could anyone forget him? Mr. Lindh is now doing 20 years for supporting the enemies of the United States. But he...

Full Title (didn't fit in thread title): NEWSWEEK: Al Qaeda Chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Wanted American Terror Suspect Gadahn to Join Plot to Blow Up Fuel Stations Near Baltimore Captured Chief Says the Islam Convert Not Eager to Participate in 'Martydom' Operations, But Was Willing to Help NEW YORK, May 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Captured Al Qaeda chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed -- "KSM" to his interrogators -- wanted American-born terror suspect Adam Yahiye Gadahn to join a plot to blow up fuel stations outside Baltimore, according to a May 2003 classified FBI document obtained by Newsweek. Gadahn, one of the seven...

The sentencing of Mijailo Mijailovic for the murder of Anna Lindh features prominently in Wednesday's Swedish papers but does not attract the blanket coverage given to her death or the subsequent police investigation. Stockholm's Aftonbladet reports that Mijailovic was completely silent as he was sentenced. It quotes a source saying he said almost nothing as he started his sentence on Tuesday evening and will meet his solicitor today, when they will discuss the possibility of appealing. Expressen concentrates on the time Mijailovic will spend in prison. The paper says he will serve at least 10 or 11 years and be...

The man who admitted knifing Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in a Stockholm department store has been jailed for life for murder. Mijailo Mijailovic had denied murder, insisting he carried out the attack because of "voices in his head". But psychiatric tests ruled he was sane when he carried out the attack last September. A court in Stockholm ruled on Tuesday that he was guilty of murder not manslaughter. He will serve at least 10 years before his sentence can be reviewed. Mijailovic had confessed to repeatedly stabbing the popular minister while she was out shopping, but insisted he did...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - The confessed killer of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh will undergo a psychiatric evaluation, a Swedish court ruled Monday as it rejected an emotional plea for his release. The Stockholm district court said there was "convincing evidence" to back prosecutors' claims that Mijailo Mijailovic intended to kill Lindh when he knifed her Sept. 10. But it postponed a verdict in the case for at least four weeks until after the psychiatric evaluation of Mijailovic, who said voices in his head told him to repeatedly stab the popular politician. Psychiatric experts at Huddinge hospital outside Stockholm could start examining...

Mijailo Mijailovic, the 25-year-old man accused of killing Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in a Stockholm department store last September, has been found guilty of the offence described in the indictment. This was announced by the president of Stockholm City Court, Goeran Nilsson, who added that a psychiatric examination of Mijailovic was required before sentence could be passed. The court therefore ordered such an examination to be carried out and ordered that Mijailovic remain in custody until this is completed, which will take four to five weeks.

 Closing Arguments in Swedish Foreign Minister Murder CaseJanuary 19, 2004 ROGER F. GAY FOR MND NEWSWIRE After two and a half days of testimony and arguments from both sides, five days after the trial began, closing arguments were given this morning in the case against Mijailo Mijailovic, the man being tried for the murder of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh. The court announced its decision, made last Friday, that Mijailovic will undergo psychiatric evaluation. Deliberations have been suspended pending completion of the evaluation, which is estimated to take four to five weeks. After release of results, it is possible...

A taxi driver who drove the self-confessed killer of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh out of town after the attack could be called as a last-minute witness on the final day of the trial, news reports said. The taxi driver, whose name was not disclosed, could on Monday provide the court with crucial information about 25-year-old Mijailo Mijailovic's state of mind after the murder, prosecutor Krister Petersson told Swedish news agency TT. The driver contacted police with his story this week, saying he had only just realized that he had driven Mijailovic home on September 10 after the attack on...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Minutes after fatally stabbing Sweden's foreign minister in a department store, her assailant took a taxi home and chatted calmly with the driver about girls, the cabbie told police Friday. The driver, who wasn't identified, was being questioned by investigators as the murder trial of Mijailo Mijailovic, 25, remained adjourned until Monday. Mijailovic has confessed to the killing, saying voices in his head made him do it. Police spokesman Goesta Andersson said the taxi driver contacted investigators Thursday and said he took Mijailovic to his home outside Stockholm after the Sept. 10 stabbing of Foreign Minister Anna...

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - A Swedish court heard a spine-chilling first hand account of how a giggly shopping trip turned into tragedy when a knife-wielding assailant fatally attacked foreign minister Anna Lindh. Eva Franchell accompanied her close friend Lindh on a shopping trip to Stockholm's NK department store on September 10 when the foreign minister was stabbed repeatedly by a 25-year-old Swede born to immigrant parents. Mijailo Mijailovic, who has a history of psychiatric problems, admitted last week to assaulting Lindh, but has pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder, arguing that he did not intend to kill her. Franchell...

Just hours after the deadly attack on Anna Lindh in September last year, the media here were breathing down investigators' necks. The memory of the failed investigation into the shooting of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986 had haunted the country for 16 years - and it returned with a vengeance. Anna Lindh was a top politician killed in her prime, like Olof Palme Palme was shot on the street as he emerged from a cinema with his wife. The crime was never solved - and no-one was ready to accept another failure. Given the eerie similarities with the Lindh...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Showing little emotion, Mijailo Mijailovic told a court Wednesday that he didn't want to stab Foreign Minister Anna Lindh to death, but he "couldn't resist" the voices in his head telling him to kill her. As the murder trial began amid tight security, the 25-year-old Swede of Yugoslav origin said he was innocent of premeditated murder and his lawyer, Peter Althin, called for the charge to be downgraded to manslaughter. "I am really sorry for what happened," Mijailovic said when he was questioned by prosecutors. "She was a nice person. It wasn't meant to be like this."...

 Trial for Murder of Swedish Foreign Minister Under WayJanuary 14, 2004 ROGER F. GAY FOR MND NEWSWIRE The trial for murder of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh began at 9:15 in Stockholm this morning. (3:15 am ET) Twenty-five year-old Mijailo Mijailovic has admitted attacking Anna Lindh in the NK department store in downtown Stockholm on September 10, 2003, but denies he planned the crime or intended to kill her. She died from stab wounds in the early morning of September 11th.Due to the strength of the evidence and his confession, the trial is ultimately expected to focus on Mr....

The man who has admitted killing Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in September will go on trial for murder today, when he is expected to tell the court that Jesus told him to do it but that he had no political motive. Mijailo Mijailovic, 25, a Swede born to Serbian parents, confessed last week to fatally stabbing Lindh, one of the country's most popular politicians, at Stockholm's upmarket NK department store on September 10. The trial, which millions of Swedes are expected to follow via a live radio broadcast, is expected to conclude on January 19. If convicted, Mijailovic faces...

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Mijailo Mijailovic, who goes on trial on Wednesday for the murder of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, is a tortured young man torn since childhood between Sweden and Serbia and bearing a history of violence. The 25-year old's confusion goes as far as believing that his actions are dictated by divine voices. Born in Sweden of Serb immigrant parents, Mijailovic was at the age of six sent to Serbia, where he lived, with his mother and sister, in his grandparent's house in Mladenovac, near Belgrade. His father worked in Stockholm, sending his wages to his family. As...

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The man being held for the murder of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh has confessed to the killing, saying it was unplanned, his defense lawyer said on Wednesday. Mijailo Mijailovic, 25, had until now said he had nothing to do with the knife attack on Lindh, who died on September 11 a day after she was repeatedly stabbed in a smart Stockholm department store. He could face life imprisonment if convicted at trial. Mijailovic, born in Sweden to Serbian immigrant parents, was arrested on September 24. Police have said their evidence includes traces of his DNA found...

The man suspected of killing Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh is 24, the son of immigrants from former Yugoslavia, has finally confessed, according to his defense lawyer.

SAN FRANCISCO - John Walker Lindh, the American imprisoned for taking up arms for the Taliban in Afghanistan (news - web sites), was attacked by a fellow inmate and slightly bruised, his lawyer said Thursday. Law enforcement authorities confirmed the 21-year-old Lindh was attacked but would not disclose a possible motive. The incident happened Monday night at the medium-security federal prison in Victorville as Lindh was preparing to pray, said his lawyer Tony West. "Our understanding is that the inmate tackled John and began hitting him while screaming obscenities before running off," West said in a statement. Lindh suffered a...

On the evening of September 11th, Rosemary Righter, the senior leader writer (“leader” is British for “editorial”) at The Times of London, was due at a dinner party. She arrived late, and found the tone, after a hard day at the office, oddly smug and triumphalist. Leaving early, she gave a lift to another guest. “Rosemary,” he said, “isn’t it marvelous to think that the arrogant bloody Americans have finally got it in the neck?” Involuntarily, she braked. Hard. Though not hard enough to precipitate him through the windshield, sadly. Miss Righter was one of the first to experience an admittedly...

By the time you read this, the Swedish police may have charged 24-year-old Mijailo Mijailovic with the murder of Sweden's Foreign Minister Anna Lindh. Or then again, maybe not. The investigation proceeds with a curious, dreamlike quality. When the deadline for holding him was up, Mijailovic himself, echoing the national lack of will to action, "agreed to be detained" for a further two weeks while the government sought more evidence, saying he didn't really fancy his chances of getting released anyway. Last September, pro-EU integration, euro enthusiast Anna Lindh went shopping in an exclusive department store in the center of...

Swedish police have found a pair of trousers covered in the blood of the country's foreign minister Anna Lindh which could belong to her killer, a newspaper has reported. The revelation comes just five days before prosecutors are due to bring formal charges against Mijailo Mijailovic, the key suspect for the September 10 knife attack against the popular Lindh. The Swedish police laboratory confirmed that the trousers, found in a forest, were soaked with Lindh's blood, the Expressen daily said. "In a precise place in the trousers there was also an object that allows us to say technically that the...

The man suspected of killing Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh is 24, the son of immigrants from former Yugoslavia, is not interested in weapons, does not take drugs and cares about "injustice." Documents released to Reuters on Friday by an appeals court, following an ethical debate about naming a man who has not yet been charged and maintains his innocence, gave no clues to any motive for the knife attack a month ago on 46-year-old Lindh. The man, arrested two weeks ago, is named as Mijailo Mijailovic, born in Sweden in 1978. He spent a few years at school in...

Stockholm - British DNA tests on traces from the knife used to kill Sweden's foreign minister Anna Lindh have strengthened the case against a suspect held in connection with the murder, press reports said Wednesday. Police refused to disclose the results of a video-conference on Tuesday, in which experts from Britain's Forensic Science Service briefed Swedish prosecutors, investigators, forensic scientists and police technicians. But reports say the DNA found on the knife matched that of 24-year-old Mijailo Mijailovic, who is being held in connection with the case. "The result strengthens the suspicion against the 24-year old," the TT news agency...

By KARL RITTER, Associated Press Writer STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A judge on Friday identified a Swedish man of Yugoslav origin as the main suspect in the murder of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh and ordered him held for at least two more weeks while investigators gather more evidence. Judge Goeran Nilsson called Mijailo Mijailovic, 24, a flight risk and said he could jeopardize the investigation if freed from police custody. The decision gives authorities two weeks to investigate and prepare charges. Mijailovic, who was arrested Wednesday but not charged, was escorted into the courtroom by four guards, a yellow, jail-issue prison...

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Swedish police appeared confident that a second man to be arrested over the murder of foreign minister Anna Lindh was the right one, as prosecutors made an early request to keep him jailed. Prosecutors had until midday Saturday to request a further detention of the man, who was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the knife attack on Lindh in a central Stockholm department store, but decided to make their move on Thursday on the basis that their case was already strong enough. "We consider this murder solved," an unidentified police source told the TT news agency....

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Police said Wednesday they had arrested a new suspect in the murder of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, and released a man they had held for more than a week. Lead investigator Agneta Blidberg told reporters the suspect was arrested earlier Wednesday morning. She did not identify the suspect or give other details, but said the arrest was not dramatic. She added that authorities had "reasonable grounds" to believe the person was involved in the killing. Police have urged people with information on Lindh's killing to call tip hot lines. They also placed a police van with...

This was the Reuters Headline in Breaking News window. Story to follow I presume.

Two story-lines going on: The murder suspect and the memorial ceremony. This is today's thread for articles, pictures, etc., for events in Sweden. This first story deals primarily with the murder suspect: Swedish prosecutor moves against key suspect in Lindh murder case 1 hour, 34 minutes ago STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Swedish prosecutors requested the continued detention of a suspect, arrested earlier this week in connection with the murder of foreign minister Anna Lindh, increasing the chances of his indictment. Per Olof Svensson "is suspected of murder at NK, Hamngatan in Stockholm, on the 10th of September 2003," district court actuary...

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - A key suspect in the murder of Sweden's Anna Lindh protested his innocence after being questioned by police, as the country prepared for a special day of mourning for their popular foreign minister. "He rejects all implication in this case," lawyer Gunnar Falk told Swedish television of his client, whose name is still being withheld Thursday. Lindh died on September 11, a day after being stabbed by an attacker in a central Stockholm department store. Her murder shocked a nation still traumatised by the 1986 assassination of then-prime minister Olof Palme who, like Lindh, was a charismatic...

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Police were racing to assemble evidence against a man arrested as the top suspect in the killing of foreign minister Anna Lindh, pinning their hopes on DNA testing as they prepared to question him. Detectives were also piecing together a profile of the suspect, with Swedish media portraying him as an enigmatic personality, equally at home in neo-Nazi circles as in the upper echelons of Stockholm society. "Time is essential," police spokeswoman Stina Wessling told a news conference Wednesday, called after the suspect's first night in jail. Swedish police can only hold a suspect for three days...

Lindh killer arrest claim is false, cops say September 16 2003 at 03:09PM By Jurgen Hecker Stockholm - Even as the hunt for the killer of foreign minister Anna Lindh went global, Swedish police said on Tuesday he was probably hiding out in Stockholm, but denied reports that a man had already been arrested. "No arrest has been made," police spokesperson Lars Groenskog said. Daily Expressen reported in its online edition that police had arrested a man in connection with the murder during a lunchtime raid on Tuesday in Stockholm. 'This lead is not more interesting than any other' "The...

... more to come soon...

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Swedish police said that the hunt for the killer of the country's foreign minister Anna Lindh was now focused on a man whose face was caught on video near the crime scene. This development came amid media reports that investigators had actually identified him a day after his photos were released to the public. The police, however, said they had not yet made a positive identification. "We haven't identified him. We are getting closer," police spokeswoman Stina Wessling told AFP, adding the man's identification was "a priority" and would be a breakthrough in the case. "Interrogations strengthen...

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - With their defiant "no" to the euro as their currency, Swedish voters were targeting the European Union as a whole, seen by many here as bureaucratic, corrupt and undisciplined. An overwhelming victory for euro opponents also reflected a deep-rooted opposition to moving power further away from the people to the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, which Swedes feared would not take the needs of their small country into account when shaping monetary policy. Following Sunday's vote, Prime Minister Goeran Persson said Swedes remained committed members of Europe, claiming that results only showed "distrust toward the EMU," the...

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedes voted Sunday on whether to adopt the euro currency of 12 other European countries after sympathy for murdered pro-euro Foreign Minister Anna Lindh eroded a long "No" lead in opinion polls. Election officials said the majority of votes would be counted by 8:30 p.m. GMT and there would be no official word on voter turnout until polls in the vast but sparsely populated Scandinavian country closed at 6 p.m. GMT. Sweden had looked likely to vote a resounding "No" to joining the euro zone until the 46-year-old Lindh, who had been tipped as the next prime...

A prominent British Eurosceptic has described the murder of the Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh as the act of a "patriot" and called upon other anti-euro campaigners to be prepared to take similar action against government figures here. Police are investigating whether Greg Lance-Watkins, who runs EuroRealist, an internet site which is virulently against Britain's membership of the EU, has acted illegally. Ms Lindh, 46, a leading proponent of the pro-euro campaign in Sweden which culminates today in a referendum on whether to join the currency, was stabbed by an unknown assailant four days ago. Mr Lance-Watkins has issued a...

A prominent British Eurosceptic has described the murder of the Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh as the act of a "patriot" and called upon other anti-euro campaigners to be prepared to take similar action against government figures here. Police are investigating whether Greg Lance-Watkins, who runs EuroRealist, an internet site which is virulently against Britain's membership of the EU, has acted illegally. Ms Lindh, 46, a leading proponent of the pro-euro campaign in Sweden which culminates today in a referendum on whether to join the currency, was stabbed by an unknown assailant four days ago. Mr Lance-Watkins has issued a...

<p>Swedish police could not pull fingerprints from the knife used in the slaying of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh and planned to use DNA testing to find clues to the killer's identity, police said Saturday.</p> <p>Olof Egerstedt, director of the National Laboratory of Forensic Science, told The Associated Press that fingerprints could not be pulled from the knife because of its ribbed, plastic handle.</p>

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish sympathy for murdered pro-euro Foreign Minister Anna Lindh has thrown Sunday's vote on swapping the crown for the euro wide open, with one poll on the eve of the referendum pointing to an upset "Yes" win. Police said they were "very anxious" to question a dark-haired man in a cap whose image was caught by a security camera in the department store where Lindh was stabbed on Wednesday. They would not confirm reports he was the main suspect. In a sign that grief for Lindh may swing Swedes toward the European Union's single currency, a Gallup...

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Thousands of mourners were due to pay homage to slain foreign minister Anna Lindh as police broadened their hunt for a man who shocked Sweden by stabbing to death one of its most popular figures. Meanwhile, contrasting opinion polls on Friday kept Swedes guessing as to whether the slaying of Lindh, who was an ardent supporter of adopting the euro, may sway the outcome of a key currency referendum Sunday that carries wide-ranging repercussions for Europe. Led by Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson, the demonstration on Sergels Torg square has been called "A Protest Against Violence and...

Research institute SKOP's survey, carried out after Ms Lindh's death, showed support for the euro growing , with the "Yes"and "No" sides neck and neck on 50 per cent each.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Police searched Thursday for a tall, stocky Swede with bad skin who fatally stabbed Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in a Stockholm store. Her death removed the nation's leading campaigner for replacing the krona with the euro — an issue that had inspired vehement opposition. The 46-year-old Lindh died at a hospital Thursday, a day after she was chased up an escalator and repeatedly stabbed in the stomach, chest and arm. Her attacker fled, dropping his knife and camouflage jacket. Police said they were searching for a 6-foot Swedish man with bad skin and shoulder-length dark-blond hair, possibly...

Sweden Morns Murder of Foreign Minister Stockholm: Roger F. Gay Thursday, September 11, 2003 Two years to the day after the terrorist attacks in the United States, the Swedish people are preoccupied with a new tragedy. About quarter past four Wednesday afternoon Sweden's minister of foreign affairs Anna Lindh was stabbed repeatedly in a department store in Stockholm. The assailant struck quickly and immediately left the store and escaped. Witnesses have provided a description but the man's identity and motive are still unknown. Doctors at Karolinska Hospital worked through the night against life threatening injuries. Early this morning her...

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedes wept and laid red roses to mourn murdered foreign minister Anna Lindh on Thursday amid a wave of national grief and incredulity as tributes poured in from world leaders. "Sweden has lost its face toward the world," Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said. In Geneva, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Lindh a "great foreign minister, a great Swede and a great European." Lindh, a 46-year-old mother of two, was stabbed by an unidentified attacker in a Stockholm department store on Wednesday. The Swedish flag flew at half mast at the entrance of the Karolinska hospital where...

Jerusalem, September 11, 2003 FM Expresses Condolences to Swedish Government and People (Communicated by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman) Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom expressed today (September 11, 2003) the condolences of the government and people of Israel to the Swedish government and nation over the murder of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh. Foreign Minister Shalom asked that his personal sympathy also be expressed to the Lindh family for their loss. The Minister expressed outright condemnation of the criminal murder that took the life of a leader who guided Sweden’s foreign policy over the past five years. Any resort to such...

Knifeman Stabs Swedish Foreign Minister 17 minutes ago Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo! STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's Foreign Minister Anna Lindh was stabbed in the arm at a department store in central Stockholm on Wednesday, her ministry said. It was not immediately clear how badly she was hurt. Reuters Photo Lindh, 46, one of the most active campaigners for Sweden to join the euro in a referendum on Sunday, was taken to hospital, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said. Lindh was shopping at the upmarket NK store when she was stabbed, ministry spokeswoman Ingrid Palmklint said. No details were...