Posted on 09/26/2003 6:04:41 AM PDT by Charles Henrickson
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 blanket covering his head to shield him from reporters.
Mijailovic's lawyer, Peter Althin, declined to comment on the evidence presented during the closed hearing, citing a court order not to give details of the case.
"He's been detained, but we are miles away from a conviction in a trial," Althin said. "He is not guilty until there is a sentence." Althin said his client had not yet decided whether to appeal the detention order.
He criticized the judge's decision to release Mijailovic's name, which was classified before the detention hearing.
Nilsson said he made public Mijailovic's name because the investigation had a reached the point where it wasn't necessary to protect his identity.
"This is an open society and this person is a suspect on probable grounds and there is no reason to keep it classified," Nilsson told The Associated Press.
Lindh was stabbed in the chest, stomach and arms on Sept. 10 while shopping with a friend at a crowded department store in downtown Stockholm. She died from her injuries a day later.
Police arrested Mijailovic on Wednesday, the same day they released a previous suspect.
Court documents show that Mijailovic has prior convictions of stabbing his father repeatedly in the back with a knife, illegal gun possession and making threatening phone calls to two women.
A psychiatric evaluation in connection with the 1997 trial for the stabbing of his father, who survived the attack, found Mijailovic "in great need of psychiatric and psychotherapeutic efforts," but there were no medical grounds to sentence him to psychiatric care. He was sentenced to probation, court documents show.
Nilsson ordered another psychiatric evaluation of Mijailovic during the Friday hearing.
Still haunted by the unsolved 1986 murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme, police said they are examining every possibility in the hunt for Lindh's killer. The investigation first centered on a 35-year-old drifter, who was detained for a week after prosecutors said there was "reasonable cause" he was Lindh's killer.
Lindh's death sent shock waves across the Scandinavian country of 9 million and evoked painful memories of the Palme murder, who, like Lindh, had no bodyguards when he was killed.
In the Palme investigation, one suspect was captured and released after a week. Another suspect was convicted but later acquitted on appeal. Unlike the Lindh investigation, police never found the murder weapon used to kill the prime minister.
Police do not believe the attack was politically motivated, though it came just three days before Swedes voted to reject replacing the Swedish krona with the euro.
Lindh was a leading campaigner for the euro.
Mijailo Mijalovic is seen in this undated police photo. A Swedish court ruled Friday Sept. 26, 2003 Mijalovic, the suspect in the murder of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, can be held for two weeks while police and prosecutors gather more evidence. Judge Goeran Nilsson handed down the decision Friday morning after a closed-door hearing inside police headquarters in Stockholm.
An artist's impression of the suspect in the stabbing death of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, Mijailo Mijailovic, hidden under a yellow blanket at left, with his defense council Peter Althin, at right, facing judge Goeran Nilsson and courthouse clerk Katrin Rocklinger during the court hearing in Stockholm Friday Sept. 26, 2003.
Hmmm. . . . What does that say about you? :-)
Maybe he's just a "metrosexual." That style is very common among young urban men in Sweden.
Oh, well... then he is just a poor, sick boy, after all! (sarcasm)
Peter Althin, right, lawyer of Mijailo Mijailovic, 24, the main suspect in the Sept. 10 murder of Sweden Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, talks to the media after a court hearing Friday, Sept. 26, 2003. A judge on Friday ordered Mijailovic held for at least 2 more weeks while investigators gather more evidence.
What is wrong with the Swedish justice system? Attempted patricide gets a pychotic probation? Amazing. I'm surprised they don't have more murders there.
Chief prosecutor Agneta Blidberg shows her identification to a police officer on her way in to the courtroom during the hearing on the detention of Mijailo Mijailovic, 24, Friday, Sept. 26 2003, a suspect in the stabbing murder of Sweden Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.
This is a composite photo of four frames from a surveillance video from the NK department store in central Stockholm, Sweden Wednesday Sept.10 2003. The pictures show an unidentified man, suspected for the assassination of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh. They were released by Swedish police shortly after the murder. The film was shot on the floor above the floor where Lindh was stabbed with a knife while shopping without bodyguard, just minutes after the man was filmed by the camera. The man on the photos is wearing a cap similar to a cap the police holds as evidence and his general description matches that given by eyewitnesses. A new suspect was arrested Wednesday Sept. 24, 2003.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Looks like his face has "cleared up" since he was a teenager. :-)
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