SWEDEN: The Swedish high court ruled yesterday that the convicted murderer of foreign minister Anna Lindh should be sent to a psychiatric unit rather than face life in jail.
The court upheld a lower court's decision in March to convict 26-year-old Mijailo Mijailovic of murder but said there was overwhelming evidence he suffered from a mental disorder.
It cancelled the life imprisonment sentence imposed by the lower court but did not say how long Mijailovic should stay in mental care.
One crime expert said the average time spent by convicted murderers in a psychiatric institution in Sweden is five years.
Mijailovic had admitted stabbing Ms Lindh in a department store in central Stockholm in September but denied intent to kill. The court said he had acted on an impulse when he attacked her.
After hearing testimony from psychiatrists who carried out mental checks before the first trial, and others who conducted tests before the appeal, the court concluded there was "massive support for the assessment that Mijailo Mijailovic is suffering from a psychiatric disorder".
"No motive for the deed has emerged and in the opinion of the high court it is also unclear to what extent the deed was planned," the court said. It said it assumed "the attack was some kind of impulsive act".
The slaying of the popular politician in front of several witnesses shocked a nation where top political figures rarely had bodyguards despite the 1986 assassination of prime minister Olof Palme by a lone gunman who has yet to be found.
Crime psychiatry professor Gunnar Kullgren said that once psychiatrists declared a person was sane, they were set free.
"When it comes to murder, the time spent in a mental institution is usually shorter than it would have been if they had been sent to jail," Prof Kullgren told Reuters.
Two-thirds of prisoners convicted of murder in Sweden go to jail while the rest are given mental care, according to the national council for crime prevention.
The ruling was welcomed by Mijailovic's defence lawyer, Mr Peter Althin.
Prosecutor Mr Krister Petersson said he was not surprised by the decision because of what doctors had said about Mijailovic's mental condition.
"For him it's like winning the lottery because he will receive qualified psychiatric care," said psychiatrist Mr Anders Forsman, who examined Mijailovic and declared him mentally ill.
The prosecution had argued that Mijailovic had been watching Ms Lindh for several minutes before the attack and had had time to plan it.
The prosecution had called for life imprisonment - the severest penalty under Swedish law.
Ms Lindh, a 46-year-old mother of two, had been widely tipped as Sweden's next prime minister.
"This is not quite the kind of justice one would have hoped for," said Mr Alex Berg, a Swede in his mid-30s.
"It's a disgrace; he should have gone to jail," said Britt, a middle-aged woman from the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden.
But student Ms Marina Kaarik said the new ruling was right. "He would not have done it if he hadn't been ill," she said.
Justice Minister Mr Thomas Bodstrom declined to comment.
The prosecution has until August 5th to appeal the ruling
When questioned in the appeal court, Mijailovic hardly uttered a word, telling his lawyer he did not have the strength to speak.
In the initial trial he had said he could not resist internal voices urging him to attack Ms Lindh, but insisted he did not mean to kill her.