- Title: SWEDEN: SECOND DAY OF LINDH MURDER TRIAL AS DEFENDANT REMAINS SILENT
- Date: 17th January 2004
- Summary: (EU) STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (JANUARY 15, 2004) (REUTERS) SLV EXTERIORS STOCKHOLM COURT SLV EXTERIORS HIGH SECURITY PRISON WHERE MIJAILO MIJAILOVIC DETAINED (3 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 1st February 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
- City:
- Country: Sweden
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAEARIHQKP9WDYG6L0P5XJJ5416
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: The second day of Lindh murder trial with defendant choosing to remain silent in court.
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 (January 15) 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 in Stockholm on the murder trial's second day.
Mijailovic, born of Serbian parents, said, when the trial opened on Wednesday, he had been unable to resist "inner voices" urging him to cut down the 46-year-old mother of two.
If the prosecution can prove intent to kill, Mijailovic faces up to life in prison.
On Thursday Eva Franchell, a friend who accompanied Lindh on the shopping round, testified how Mijailovic had rushed past her to push himself "perversely" close to Lindh's body, pressing her up against a clothes rack.
Franchell told the court she saw the assailant jab Lindh in the stomach but had not seen a knife.
The prosecutor says Mijailovic saw Lindh already from afar and planned the murder for at least several minutes.
But Mijailovic said he had acted on impulse and had nothing personal against Lindh and no intention to kill.
Druid told the court Lindh had been stabbed between five and nine times, including the mortal blow at least seven cm (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, with considerable force, Druid said.
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.
Opinion on the streets outside the court appeared predominantly in favour of Mijailovic being sentenced for premeditated murder.
"There is no doubt he should get sentenced for murder and the toughest sentence possible. But what people are wondering about is what was the motive, why he did what he did. Is he simply sick person or was there a political motive," said local man, Said Azizy.
"I think he should be sentenced for precipitated murder, premeditated murder, because he was interested in politics and went to political gatherings and Anna Lindh was a prominent supporter of EU," said Stockholm local, Kerstin Appel.
Lindh's murder is the most high profile crime in mostly peaceful Sweden since the unsolved 1986 assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme. The trial was adjourned until Monday. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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