Lindh murder suspect held for fortnight

A Swedish court ruled today that a suspect in the murder of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh can be held in custody for a further two weeks.

Judge Goeran Nilsson handed down the decision after a closed-door hearing inside police headquarters in Stockholm.

Nilsson said that charges against the suspect, 24-year old Yugoslav Mijailo Mijailovic, must be filed by prosecutors no later than October 10.

Mijailovic was escorted into the court room by four guards, a yellow, jail-issue prison blanket covering his head.

He 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, court documents show.

A psychiatric evaluation in connection with the 1997 trial for the stabbing of his father, who survived the attack, found the man was “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.

Lindh was stabbed in the chest, stomach and arms by an unknown attacker on September 10 while shopping with a friend at a crowded department store in Stockholm. She died from her injuries a day later.

Peter Althin, Mijailovic’s lawyer, said his client denied being involved in the killing.