Police ‘will solve’ Lindh murder

SWEDISH police chief Sten Heckscher said yesterday, he was confident police would resolve the killing of foreign minister Anna Lindh, dismissing comparisons with the unresolved 1986 murder of prime minister Olof Palme.

"The chances that police will resolve the murder of Anna Lindh are good. I am very hopeful that we will succeed," Heckscher told Swedish news agency TT in an interview. Lindh was stabbed by an unidentified assailant in a Stockholm department store on September 10, and died of massive internal bleeding the following day.

A 35-year-old man, Per Olof Svensson, has been arrested because of his likeness to a man videotaped by the store's security cameras, but police have refused to disclose whether they have evidence linking him to the crime.

Police have until Friday to gather additional evidence among which DNA testing is believed to figure prominently after which they must either release him or raise their degree of suspicion against him from "low" to "high".