Shortly after four on the afternoon of Wednesday 10th September 2003 Anna Lindh was murdered while shopping in the ladies' department at the Nordiska Kompaniet department store in the centre of Stockholm. She was stabbed in the chest, stomach and arms. Her murderer escaped after the crime. According to eyewitness accounts his actions appeared deliberate and systematic. At the scene of the crime the police secured a handprint and outside the department store in the vicinity of a subway station they found a few items of clothing and a knife.

Anna Lindh was rushed to Karolinska Hospital where she underwent surgery for over nine hours receiving blood transfusions continually during the operation. She suffered internal bleeding and her liver was seriously damaged. At first she appeared to have improved after her surgery. But then an hour later complications set in and Anna Lindh was announced dead at 05:29 am local time on Thursday 11th September 2003.

Following the attack an anonymous phone line was set up and a massive manhunt launched in Sweden. Images from the surveillance cameras on a floor above the scene of the murder were released on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th September. Per-Olof Svensson was apprehended on Tuesday 16th September and detained as a suspect on justifiable grounds…the lowest degree of suspicion. He was released six days later on Wednesday 24th September following the arrest of a second suspect Mijailo Mijailović on probable cause. On Thursday 25th September it was announced that the DNA-profile of Mijailovic matched that of hairs found on the baseball cap left near the scene of the crime and that he resembled the man filmed in the store where Anna Lindh was attacked. Mijailović denied all involvement.

On 6th January 2004 Mijailović confessed to the police that he killed Anna Lindh and gave a full account of the events on 10th September in an extra session of police questioning requested by his legal counsel Peter Althin…a Member of Parliament for the Christian Democrats. From 14th to 17th January 2004 a trial took place in Stockholm and Mijailović was found guilty. Sentencing was postponed pending a psychiatric evaluation which concluded on 9th March that Mijailović was not criminally insane. On 23rd March 2004 he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

On 8th July an Appeals Court overturned the sentence after tests concluded he was suffering from a mental illness at the time of the killing. He was then transferred from prison to a closed psychiatric ward. On 2nd December 2004 Sweden’s Supreme Court overruled the Court of Appeal and the sentence of life imprisonment was re-instated.

Mijailo Mijailović was born on 6th December 1978 in Stockholm to Serbian immigrant parents and had dual citizenship in Serbia & Montenegro and Sweden at the time of Anna Lindh’s murder. On 20th September 2004 his application to have his Swedish citizenship revoked was granted. Mijailovic’s request to be transferred to a Serbian prison was refused.

Swedish newspapers report that Mijailović was released from a mental institution five days before the killing of Anna Lindh, had serious mental problems and had previously been convicted of violent crimes. Mijailović is said to have been greatly angered by Anna Lindh's staunch support for the US-led military campaign against Serbia.

Anna Lindh was born on 19th June 1957 and was married to the Governor of Södermanland Bo Holmberg and had two sons David & Filip. She was born in Enskede, a south-eastern suburb of Stockholm, but grew up outside Enköping. In 1969 she joined the local branch of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League, with protesting against the Vietnam War one of her top priorities. Here are the highlights of her high-flying Swedish political career.

Chair of the National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations (1981-1983); Member of the Swedish Parliament and member of the Parliamentary Committee on Taxation (1982-1985); Chair of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League (1984-1990); Member of the Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party (1991-2003); Stockholm City Commissioner for Culture and Leisure, Chair of Stockholm City Theatre (1991-1994) ;Minister and Head of the Ministry of the Environment (1994-1998); Minister and Head of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (1998-2003).