Jesus told me to murder minister says killer

The man who has confessed to murdering Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh said voices in his head, including Jesus, told him to do it.

“I don’t know, I think it’s Jesus. That he has chosen me,” Mijailo Mijailovic, 25, said according to a transcripts of his confessions.

Mijailovic, who has a history of mental problems, was charged with Lindh’s murder today and his trial will open in Stockholm on Wednesday.

He said the his frenzied stabbing attack on Sweden’s popular foreign minister as she shopped in a Stockholm department store last September was a ”cry for help”.

Prosecutors said he stabbed Lindh, touted as a future prime minister, 10 times on her chest, stomach and arms. The 46-year-old politician died from her injuries a day later, plunging the country into shock and mourning.

Mijailovic’s lawyer, Peter Althin, said he would request a psychiatric screening of his client during the trial.

Police and prosecutors said the attack was premeditated.

“The main proof is the technical evidence, that Mijailovic’s DNA is on the knife and that Anna Lindh’s blood is on the knife,” said investigator Christer Nilsson, who added that Mijailovic knew it was Lindh when he attacked her.

Mijailovic’s confession came after nearly four months of denials. According to transcripts of the confession, he said the attack wasn’t politically motivated and that he didn’t have any hard feelings toward Lindh.

“It could have been anybody, but I heard the voices, I couldn’t resist the voices,” he said.

Mijailovic, a Swede of Yugoslav descent, said he had been denied psychiatric help at hospitals in the area before and after the attack.

Lead prosecutor Agneta Blidberg said the main evidence against Mijailovic wasn’t the confession, but DNA evidence linking him to the murder weapon, a craftsman’s knife. Lindh’s blood was also found on his clothing.

“Our evidence was strong enough to press charges without his confession,” Blidberg said, adding that she would call three witnesses to testify: Anna Lindh’s friend who was with her during the attack, the coroner who did her autopsy, and a British forensic expert that analysed the murder weapon.

Mijailovic could be sentenced to between 10 years and life in prison, or to a mental hospital if found not mentally competent.