Swedish relief over Lindh verdict

By Lars Bevanger
BBC, Stockholm

As the news of Mijailo Mijailovic's life sentence for the murder of Anna Lindh started reaching people here, there was an emerging sense of closure of a sorry chapter of recent Swedish history.

Brigitta Stenqvist, a 45-year-old make-up artist from Stockholm, said she felt the sentence was a good one.

Mijailovic denies planning to kill Anna Lindh

"At least it is very good for her family. It is sad with his background and all, but everybody has a history, and he did actually kill her."

Mijailo Mijailovic had a history of mental problems and told the court he felt the medical establishment had failed to give him the support he sought.

But court psychiatrists certified he was not mentally unstable at the time of the crime. That paved the way for Tuesday's life sentence.

The actual sentencing was not a dramatic affair, as the custom here is to simply hand out a press release with the court's decision. Mijailovic himself was not present at the Stockholm city court.

He was found guilty in January. He had attacked the foreign minister with a knife as she was shopping at a central Stockholm department store last year.

The evidence against him had been unusually strong and he had admitted the attack.

No doubts

The life sentence did not come as a surprise to many people here. Indeed, many commentators had said anything else would have been sensational.

I never believed him when he said voices in his head told him to attack her, this was the right sentence - I still think about her children, and their loss Cakir Hilmi Stockholm taxi driver

Mijailovic's lawyer is considering an appeal against the sentence.

But nobody is in any doubt the investigators and the prosecution caught and sentenced the right man.

The murder of former prime minister Olof Palme in 1986 was never solved. His mysterious killing was very likely to have been at the back of everybody's minds when Anna Lindh, another of Sweden's best loved politicians, was murdered.

Only this time there is no room for speculation and conspiracy theories.

Nawroz Aldim, 35, has lived in Stockholm for five years. A Kurd originally from Northern Iraq, he said he felt a great loss when he heard of Anna Lindh's death.

"She was a very good person, she was very good for the case of us Kurds. I am very happy to hear that her killer has got life in jail, but to be honest the death penalty is the best thing for him."

Cakir Hilmi, a Stockholm taxi driver, also thought the sentence was right.

"I never believed him when he said voices in his head told him to attack her. This was the right sentence. I still think about her children, and their loss."

Public outpouring

For others it is now time to focus on what Anna Lindh's death has done to Swedish politics.

The public outpouring was remarkable for Sweden

Barbro Hedvall is a commentator on the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter, and has been following the case from the very beginning.

Prime Minister Goran Persson in particular would be feeling the loss, she said, as he had intended to hand over power to Lindh at the ruling Social Democratic Party's congress in April.

The public outpouring of grief immediately after Anna Lindh's death was remarkable for this country.

Thousands of people laid flowers outside the department store where she was stabbed, and outside her office at the Foreign Ministry.

The murder brought the Swedish people together in a common sense of loss. The sentencing of Mijailo Mijailovic could now be bringing this country together in a sense of closure and relief.