Lindh killer's Serbia move rejected

Sweden today rejected a request by the convicted killer of former Foreign Minister Anna Lindh to be moved to a prison in Serbia.

The Swedish Prison and Probation Service said it turned down Mijailo Mijailovic’s request because authorities in Belgrade could not specify how long his prison term would be in Serbia.

Mijailovic, 28, is serving a life sentence at the Kumla prison in central Sweden for stabbing Lindh in a Stockholm department store in 2003.

He renounced his Swedish citizenship in 2005 and requested a transferral to Serbia, where he is a citizen. Mijailovic said he wanted to move because he felt threatened by other inmates at Kumla.

“Serbia cannot communicate in advance what sentence Mijailovic would receive in Serbia,” the prison authority said in a statement. “The Prison and Probation Service therefore does not find reasons to consent to a transferral.”

In Serbia, the maximum prison sentence is 40 years.

Mijailovic has the right to appeal the decision. His lawyer, Mikael Nilsson, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Mijailovic confessed to stabbing Lindh, saying it was an impulse attack ordered by voices in his head, but claimed he did not mean to kill her.