Stockholm - The confessed killer of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh had his life jail sentence confirmed by the Supreme Court on Thursday after he appealed for leniency saying he was mentally ill when he stabbed her.
Mijailo Mijailovic, the 25-year-old son of Serb immigrants, admitted to a frenzied knife attack last year on the 46-year-old woman tipped as the next prime minister. But he blamed "voices" in his head and argued he should not be jailed.
Convicted of murder in March and sentenced to life, he was then ordered into psychiatric care after a first appeal decided he was mentally ill and not responsible for his actions.
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But public prosecutors and the Lindh family appealed to Sweden's highest court for the original life jail term to stick, while Mijailovic's defence argued for the murder charge to be replaced with a lesser charge of manslaughter.
| The killing reminded Sweden of the still unsolved murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme |
"Even though Mijailo Mijailovic due to his psychiatric disorder may have had a limited ability to control his actions, the circumstances are such that the punishmnent, as the district court found, should be life in prison," said the Supreme Court in a statement communicating its verdict.
Lindh, who was married and had two children, was killed in a hail of knife blows in an apparently unmotivated attack while out shopping. She died of her wounds the next day.
The killing reminded Sweden of the still unsolved murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme in a Stockholm street in 1986.
Mijailovic, a high school dropout with a history of mental problems, may ask to serve his term in his parents' homeland, Serbia. He has given up his Swedish citizenship.
Swedish media reported this week that Mijailovic fears reprisals from fellow inmates in Swedish jails but might be treated as a hero in Serbia, where Lindh was unpopular for condoning Nato air strikes against Belgrade in 1999.
"He realises the potential threat against him is great in Sweden, both in jail and in society at large, so he wants to serve his time there (in Serbia)," his lawyer, Mikael Nilsson, told a Swedish television programme this week.
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