Court blocks psychiatric review of Lindh killer

A court in Stockholm today rejected the defence’s request for a review of the psychiatric evaluation of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh’s confessed killer, prompting prosecutors to demand a sentence of life in prison.

The Stockholm District court ruled that no review of the psychiatric evaluation of Mijailo Mijailovic was necessary.

The original evaluation determined he was not seriously mentally ill when he stabbed Lindh in a department store last autumn.

Prosecutor Agneta Blidberg, who had earlier agreed to the defence request, then called for a murder conviction, arguing that Mijailovic had acted rationally before and after his attack on Lindh.

“Mijailovic should therefore, according to the prosecution, in a comprehensive assessment, be convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison,” Blidberg said.

The court set the sentencing hearing for April 23.

Defence lawyer Peter Althin criticised the decision not to allow another evaluation and said his client should be released.

“There are great weaknesses in this evaluation,” he said.

Mijailovic, a 25-year-old Swede of Serbian origin, has said voices in his head, including that of Jesus, urged him to attack the popular foreign minister.

Mijailovic’s fate – whether he was to be sent to prison or to a closed mental hospital – depended largely on the psychiatric evaluation.

After the ruling, Blidberg said it was “quite clear that there are no medical prerequisites for handing him over to psychiatric care”.

Lindh died a day after the September 10 stabbing, plunging Sweden into deep shock three days ahead of a national referendum on whether to adopt the euro. Swedes ultimately rejected the common European currency, though Lindh had been a main advocate of adopting it.