Anna Lindh killer breaks silence over murder

The man convicted of the 2003 murder of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, Mijailo Mijailovic, has finally spoken out about the case after eight years in prison.

• Hospital cleared in probe of Anna Lindh's care (31 Jan 11)
• Hospital demands probe of Anna Lindh's care (29 Sep 10)
• Anna Lindh memorial inaugurated in Stockholm (5 May 10)

The 32-year-old Mijailovic admitted in an extensive interview with Expressen newspaper on Sunday that he had not planned the assassination but did it on impulse after seeing the foreign minister at the time outside the NK department store in Stockholm.

He said he then followed her around several stories of the shop on September 10th, 2003, before the fatal stabbing incident which rocked society and changed Swedish politics.

High on the hypnotic drug Flunitrazepam at the time, Mijailovic told how he tracked down Lindh and eventually caught up with her and stabbed her at a Filippa K concession.

”I just went up, took out the knife and it happened there. It happened so fast. I remember that the atmosphere was chaotic, very crowded, and someone yelled catch him. I remember that there was a lot of shouting," Mijailovic told the newspaper, recalling the incident

Despite the attack happening in a crowded shop in broad daylight, Mijailovic managed to flee the scene, much to his surprise.

”I went slowly at first, then when I left through the side entrance, the same one I took on the way in. Then I threw the knife in a trash can.....Then I started running again. I took a taxi at Dramaten Theatre," he said.

"I saw police cars, so it was a bit strange that they did not catch me in town.....Later I sobered up in the woods in Södertalje, where I threw away the clothes. I sat there in the woods and thought: This is my last taste of freedom.”

Mijailovic expressed little sign of remorse during the trial and gave few clues as to his motives.

In the interview he denied that it was motivated by Lindh’s statements over the NATO bombings of Serbia, stating that it had been a coincidence it was Lindh he saw, and that he had previously considered attacking Lars Leijonborg of the Liberal Party (Folkpartiet) a week before the Lindh murder.

”I felt hatred of politicians, both Swedish and Serbian. I blamed all my own failures on politicians,” he told Expressen.

”In retrospect, I realise that it was weak to blame their own failures of politicians. It's not a politicians fault that things go wrong for people in life,” he adds.

Later in the interview Mijailovic admitted that he had made up his defence line about hearing voices as a ploy to plead insanity and thereby escape a sentence in a normal prison.

Mijailovic accepts that he will most likely never be released and is prepared for his fate.

”I cannot be forgiven for everything. I will go to hell, when the time comes,” the 32-yer-old concluded.