Lindh murder trial expected soon
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Lindh's killing shocked the normally peaceful nation.
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Sweden mourning Foreign Minister Anna Lindh
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STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuters) -- The man accused of murdering Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh is likely to go on trial in January, Chief Prosecutor Krister Petersson said on Tuesday.
Lindh, 46, was attacked while out shopping in a Stockholm department store on September 10 by a man wielding a knife. The mother of two, who had been tipped as Sweden's next prime minister, died of her wounds the next morning.
The brutal killing shocked the normally peaceful nation, evoking memories of the 1986 assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme. Like Palme, Lindh was murdered while out on foot without bodyguards.
"We are planning to press charges around mid-January," Petersson told Reuters.
He said the prosecution aimed to finish documenting its case against the suspect, Mijailo Mijailovic, and hand it to his defense lawyer, Peter Althin, before Christmas.
"The material is quite extensive and he (Althin) will probably need two or three weeks to prepare his response." Althin was not immediately available for comment.
In Sweden a prosecutor can present charges once the defense has submitted its response, and the trial must begin at the latest seven days after a suspect has been formally charged.
Mijailovic was born in Sweden in 1978 to Serbian immigrant parents and spent a few years at school in their homeland, identified in Swedish court documents as "the former Yugoslavia." He has said he is innocent.
Police arrested him on September 24 and say their evidence against him is strong, although no motive has been established.
The Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter on Tuesday quoted Stockholm district court judge Goran Nilsson as saying he hoped the prosecutor would be ready at the latest on January 16.
"We plan to begin the trial on Tuesday January 20," Nilsson said. "We will need between three and six says in court."
Nilsson was not immediately available for comment. A court official declined comment. Petersson called the timetable reasonable.
Swedish murder trials are decided by a panel of one or more professional judges and three or four laymen, each with one equal-weight vote. If found guilty, Mijailovic could face life in prison. The court may also order a psychiatric examination.
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