. . . . . . . . . Anna Lindh . . . . . . . . . . . . . Her temporary grave marker
Posted on 01/15/2004 1:22:04 PM PST by Charles Henrickson
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 told judges at Mijailovic's trial that she met up with Lindh to buy clothes for the foreign minister who had nothing to wear for a TV appearance that night.
The atmosphere was light-hearted, with not a hint of menace in the air, Franchell told the court. "We were laughing and chatting a lot," she said.
As the women looked for a blazer for Lindh, a man, Mijailovic, suddenly appeared between them.
"Out of the corner of my eye... I see a man come rushing toward us. I perceived it as terribly threatening," a calm, soft-spoken Franchell told the court.
As she testified, she avoided looking at Mijailovic, except to identify him at the request of the judge.
"This image of him rushing past me is something I experience over and over again in nightmares," she said.
"He throws himself against her, and pushes her up against a clothes rack. It looked like he was boxing her in the stomach. It actually looked like shadow-boxing," she said, adding: "It almost looked perverse that he was pushing himself up against her like that."
The petite Lindh lifted both arms and held out her shoulderbag in front of her body to defend herself, but the attack was too violent to resist.
Franchell yelled "What the hell are you doing?" and tried to push the attacker away, striking him on the arm, according to her account.
"At first, Anna is still standing there. She doesn't fall down, she's still standing for a second or two. And then, she begins to slump down slowly," she said.
At first, Franchell didn't grasp that her friend had been badly injured. "I said to her 'But how are you, my friend?' And she replied 'I've been stabbed'."
And then the blood came. "I see her stomach first. She's wearing a black top but I can see that it is wet," she said.
Mijailovic never spoke a word during the attack, which lasted just a few seconds, Franchell recalled, adding: "The situation was unbelievably frightening and aggressive."
Lindh, who was without a bodyguard in the store, died early the next day of several stab wounds to her stomach, chest and arms, a death that plunged Sweden into deep grief.
Mijailovic, who testified on the opening day of the trial on Wednesday, said he was sleep-deprived and under heavy medication at the time of the attack.
Voices in his head told him to attack Lindh, he claimed, although he did not reiterate an earlier statement made to police that it was Jesus Christ ordering him to stab Lindh.
Mijailovic was briefly cross-examined again on Thursday, but declined to answer any of the prosecution's questions, instead staring at the table in front of him.
But as the chief judge asked him to go over his criminal record, which includes violent assault and illegal possession of arms, he did so willingly and accurately.
Prosecutors hoped that Franchell's testimony would be key to proving Mijailovic's intent when he attacked Lindh.
The stakes are high, after Mijailovic's lawyer, Peter Althin, suggested that his client would have to be set free if the prosecution cannot prove the murder charge, as it has not brought any secondary charges, such as manslaughter. Forensic expert Henrik Druid told the court "a lot of force was needed" to carry out the attack.
Lindh, who had been tipped to one day become her country's prime minister, was 46 and left two young children.
Her death rekindled memories of the still unsolved 1986 assassination of the country's prime minister Olof Palme.
The court was to take a break Friday, with the trial to resume Monday with the final pleas from both sides. The verdict is likely only after a month-long psychiatric examination of Mijailovic has been completed.
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The man who stabbed Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh to death attacked her savagely, inflicting wounds to her chest and abdomen, witnesses said on Thursday, a day after the defendant denied intent to kill.
Mijailo Mijailovic, 25, has confessed to the attack on September 10 while Lindh shopped in a Stockholm department store. He slashed her with at least five knife thrusts, Coroner Henrik Druid told the court on the murder trial's second day. . . .
Druid told the court Lindh had been stabbed between five and nine times, including the mortal at least 3-inch deep thrust to the abdomen, which damaged her liver.
Documents submitted to the court by the prosecutor, who wants Mijailovic convicted for murder, said Druid's testimony showed the wounds had been inflicted with intent to kill.
One stab had cut through Lindh's radius bone, one of two bones in the lower arm, Druid said. "The force necessary was considerable. Everyone can imagine how strong a bone is."
Mijailovic, who was convicted of assault in 1997 after stabbing his father with a knife, refused on Thursday to answer further questions but looked calm throughout the hearing. . . .
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A witness described how Sweden's foreign minister was pushed against a clothes rack and stabbed to death while shopping, but prosecutors ran into a stone wall when prodding the confessed killer for more answers Thursday.
"I am not going to answer any more questions," Mijailo Mijailovic said during the second day of his trial in the death of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh. He remained silent as prosecutors pressed him to elaborate on the internal voices he said told him to attack Lindh on Sept. 10. . . .
The 25-year-old Swede of Serbian origin sat in silence Thursday, staring down at a plain, wooden desk, as prosecutors pressed him for details of the attack.
His lawyer, Peter Althin, said Mijailovic was too exhausted to talk.
"Yesterday he answered all the questions, from the court, from the prosecutors," Althin told Associated Press Television News. "Today he just couldn't because had no more power in him." . . .
The second day concluded after a closed-door session involving secret information from a preliminary psychiatric screening conducted after Mijailovic's Sept. 24 arrest.
Althin is expected to request a complete psychiatric examination when the trial continues with closing arguments on Monday. If the panel of two judges and three politically appointed jurors rules he is suffering from a severe mental illness, Mijailovic would be sentenced to psychiatric care instead of prison.
If convicted of murder and deemed mentally competent, Mijailovic could be sentenced to life in prison, which in practice means 10 to 15 years.
Althin has also sought to reduce the charge to manslaughter, but many experts said the evidence pointed to a murder conviction.
"The alternative would be gigantic progress by the defense (in closing arguments) and I don't see that happening," said Leif G.W. Persson, criminology professor at the national police board.
Mijailovic has three previous convictions, including one for a 1996 stabbing attack on his father, who survived.
Mijailovic confessed to the attack on Lindh a week before the trial, confronted with DNA evidence linking him to the knife used to kill her.
Lindh's blood was also found on the clothes Mijailovic wore during the attack. Police found them hidden in a wooded area south of Stockholm.
. . . . . . . . . Anna Lindh . . . . . . . . . . . . . Her temporary grave marker
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mijailo Mijailovic
Well, Eva Franchell was there and managed to assault the attacker with her bare hands - which, of course, was totally insufficient.
I don't know if Sweden has any laws allowing concealed carry of a firearm for the average citizen, but if it doesn't, this is as good a reason for having such a law as I can think of; one helpless woman being brutally murdered and another helpless woman trying to protect her from a determined (and armed) attacker.
Franchell was obviously overpowered and unarmed, as was the unfortunate Mrs. Lindt. Somehow, calling the Swedish equivilent of 911 just wasn't going to do the job on this day!
Eyewitness Eva Franchell (Lindh's former press secretary)
Peter Althin, Mijailovic's defense lawyer, before court today . . . . . . . . Mijailovic being led into court
The defense would have you believe it was random, but I believe it was deliberate and targeted. There is much evidence that Mijailovic had hated Lindh since 1999, because of her support for the bombing of Serbia. Then in September, 2003, in the weeks leading up to the Euro referendum, Anna Lindh was arguably the most visible, high-profile person in Sweden, literally the "poster girl" for the "Ja!" side. Her constant public presence must have enflamed Mijailovic.
That's my theory, and I am unanimous in that!
I was wondering the same thing.
But I don't think it was particularly sexual, because of any supposedly provocative poses. (Lindh was fair-looking, but not all that attractive.) I think Mijailovic may have had a general hatred of women, particularly prominent and powerful women, though.
Don't you think Mijailovic's Serbian fervor was a factor? I do. Reportedly he hated Lindh since 1999, when she came out in support of the bombing of Serbia.
I can't say that he knew Lindh would be at NK that day. But it wouldn't surprise me if he had been trying to "stalk" her--i.e., be in the area where she might be likely to show up or at least hoping he might spot her--for some days. Why else would he be walking around with a knife in his pocket?
BTW, how long were Euro referendum posters up in Sweden? The reason I ask is, when I was in Göteborg in August 2002, I saw a number of "Ja!" and/or "Nej!" posters up, with close-ups of peoples' faces. At that time I couldn't read much Swedish, so I didn't know what they were about. I guessed it was some sort of political campaign.
You and I may think so, but to a mind like MM's they were probably not so innocuouse.
Definitely there was a general hatred against women. That is part of his early psychiatric history.
Early on there was something mentioned about the 1999 war against Serbia and Sweden's stance, but that has never been confirmed.
Ms Lindh was travelling all around Sweden. There would have been no possibility for anyone without substantial means to stalk her. On the other hand, MM was not the first person to attack her during the referendum campaign..
Of course the likelihood of you seeing a politician or other prominent person at NK or close by is very high - so someone with lots of time on their hands would eventually get an opportunity...
The posters you saw in Gothenburg August 2002 must have been from the last general election which was just a year prior to the referendum.
ScaniaBoy
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