The man arrested for stabbing Swedish Foreign Minister Ms Anna Lindh last year has confessed to the crime, his lawyer said today, adding the motive for the murder was not political.
Mijailo Mijailovic, 25, confessed yesterday while he was being interrogated by police and investigators, said Mr Peter Althin.
Mr Althin said Ms Lindh's stabbing - which occurred just days before a national referendum on whether to adopt the euro - was not political, but did not give a motive.
When asked if it was a random act, he said, "You could say that."
If he is convicted, which analysts said was all but certain, Mijailovic faces from 10 years to life in prison, but could be sentenced to a mental hospital, said Mr Christian Diesen, a Stockholm University law professor.
A Swede of Yugoslav origin with previous convictions for assault, illegal weapons possession and making death threats, Mijailovic has been in custody since September 24th, two weeks after the 46-year-old Ms Lindh was stabbed several times in the stomach in a Stockholm department store while shopping with a friend.
Doctors worked for several hours to save her, but she died the morning of September 11th, plunging the country into mourning.
Chief prosecutor Agneta Blidberg said the confession would likely result in a swifter trial and increased the likelihood of a guilty verdict.
"I had counted on a confession at some time," she said, noting thatinvestigators had successfully linked DNA traces found on the knife used to stab Ms Lindh and on Mijailovic's clothes to his own.
Mr Diesen said Mijailovic must still be tried, despite confessing.
"It was almost expected and this means that you can almost take a verdict of guilty for granted," he said. "Of course, a confession must always be tried, but if it is supported by all this technical evidence it can, in effect, only go one way."
News of the confession swept across the country, and Swedish newspapers and television began airing untouched images of Mijailovic and referring to him by name.
Originally, most media had referred to him as the 25-year-old suspect and ran blurred photos of his face.
Many Swedes expressed relief because there were concerns that the case, like the 1986 slaying of former Prime Minister Olof Palme, might not be solved.
AP