Lawyer: Lindh killing not planned
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Mijailovic said voices in his head, including Jesus, told him to stab Lindh.
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STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- The man who has confessed to killing Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh should not be tried for murder because the stabbing death wasn't planned, his lawyer said.
Instead, Mijailo Mijailovic should be tried for manslaughter, defense lawyer Peter Althin told a packed Stockholm courtroom Wednesday as his client's murder trial opened.
"He did not intend to kill her," Althin said, according to The Associated Press.
But prosecutors say the attack was premeditated, and they are expected to argue Mijailovic followed Lindh for 14 minutes before fatally stabbing her September 10 in a department store.
The 46-year-old popular politician died the following day, plunging the country into a state of shock and mourning.
Chief prosecutor Agneta Blidberg plans to call three witnesses during the trial, including Eva Franchell, who was with Lindh during the attack, AP reported.
Police also found Lindh's blood on Mijailovic's clothes and his DNA on the murder weapon.
Blidberg told the court that British experts who analyzed DNA samples said the chance they were not from Mijailovic was 1 in 16 million, AP said.
During the opening statements, Mijailovic sat at a small table with his lawyer, facing the panel of judges. He wore a black sweater and sweatpants and had a slight beard.
Prosecutors on Monday charged Mijailovic, 25, with murder, saying forensic evidence linked him to the weapon and the victim.
Last week, Mijailovic confessed to the killing, saying voices in his head, including Jesus, told him to stab Lindh.
Mijailovic, who has a history of mental problems, said the attack was a "cry for help."
"I don't know, I think it's Jesus. That he has chosen me," Mijailovic said according to a transcript of his confessions filed with Stockholm District Court, The Associated Press reported.
Mijailovic's confession came after nearly four months of denials.
Althin said the attack -- which came on the eve of Sweden's referendum on whether to join the single European currency -- was neither planned nor politically motivated.
Lindh was stabbed while out shopping with a friend.
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"I felt awful, I was desperate, and I didn't know what to do. Then I heard voices that spoke to me 'so and so,"' Mijailovic said.
"Then I saw Anna Lindh and then I attacked. Then we ran away and lost the knife in the escalator."
According to documents filed with the court, prosecutors said Lindh was stabbed 10 times and had wounds all over her body.
Mijailovic faces from 10 years to life in prison. Sweden, like other European countries, does not have the death penalty.
Althin said he would request a psychiatric examination for his client. If found mentally ill, he would receive treatment and might not go to jail.
There is no jury in Swedish courts. A panel of judges -- in the Lindh case two professionals and three laymen -- decide the verdict after hearing the prosecution and defense cases along with evidence from witnesses.
"The trial will be all about the penalty, not about the guilt," Per Samuelsson, an independent lawyer, told Reuters.
Lindh, touted as a future prime minister of the Scandinavian country of 9 million, was popular with many Swedes. Her death shocked the country and left it numb just days ahead of a national referendum on whether to adopt the euro, which failed.
Police maintained her death was not the result of her strong pro-euro stance, calling it merely a random act of violence.
The trial against Mijailovic is expected to dominate media in Sweden, which is still haunted by the unsolved assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986.
Like Lindh, Palme was out in public without bodyguards.
Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
