The confessed killer of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh must undergo a psychiatric examination, Stockholm district court ruled today.
The court adjourned the murder trial until the results of the examination of Mr Mijailo Mijailovic (25) are clear. He will remain in detention for the time being, Judge Goran Nilsson told the court on the third day of the trial.
Defence lawyer Mr Peter Althin told reporters the psychiatric evaluation should have been done before the trial started, but with Mr Mijailovic's confession and the huge pressure from the media, postponing the trial "was difficult, if not impossible".
Mr Mijailovic has confessed to the September 10th attack in a Stockholm department store, admitting he inflicted the knife wounds that caused Ms Lindh's death.
But the high-school dropout, born in Sweden to Serbian immigrant parents, denies intent to kill. He said he acted on an impulse after having heard "inner voices".
The prosecution says he saw Ms Lindh, a mother of two and Sweden's likely next prime minister, in the store a while before the attack and planned to kill her.
The trial is Sweden's most high-profile criminal case since the unsolved 1986 assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme.