Swedish police were today due to question the man they believe killed Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, as forensic experts check if his genetic code matches a sample taken off the knife used in the attack.
The man (35) was arrested last night as he drank and watched soccer in a Stockholm pub-restaurant. Police said he resembled the man shown on security camera images from the department store where Ms Lindh was stabbed a week ago.
"Today we will conduct a more detailed questioning of him than last night, when we only asked him to identify himself and whether he pleaded guilty or not," police spokeswoman Ms Stina Wessling said.
The suspect would get a lawyer today, Ms Wessling said, but she declined to say whether he had pleaded guilty. Police will also search several unspecified locations today.
A forensic team took a sample of the suspect's genetic code, or DNA, after his arrest and will compare it to a sample that they hope to get from the murder weapon, which has been sent to a forensic lab in Britain, she said.
Police can keep the man in custody for three days before they need to ask a court to extend the arrest without charges being filed. Ms Wessling said the arrest followed a flood of tip-offs from the public and relatives of the suspect after the security camera pictures were released to the media.
Ms Lindh was stabbed in a Stockholm department store while out last shopping last Wednesday. Like most Swedish politicians, she had no bodyguards. The 46-year-old mother of two, who was tipped to be the next prime minister, died of her wounds the next day.
Swedish TT news agency said the suspect is 35 and has 18 previous convictions for crimes such as fraud and theft as well as violence and threats involving knives.
A psychiatric examination in 2002 linked to one of these offences found he was not mentally ill, TT said. Under Swedish law, criminals declared mentally ill cannot be sentenced to jail but must undergo psychiatric treatment instead.
Doctors have said the man has a narcissistic personality, TT said. The man has told a court he abused cocaine and alcohol.