Swedish police have arrested a new suspect for the murder of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh after clearing a man held for the past week, a public prosecutor said today.
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Murdered Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.
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Ms Lindh, who had been tipped as the next prime minister, was stabbed by a man on September 10th and died the next day of her wounds. Police are under pressure to solve the crime which brought back memories of the unsolved assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986.
Public Prosecutor Agneta Blidberg said the initial suspect, never officially named, was "no longer suspected of the murder".
"Another person has been apprehended and arrested suspected on probable grounds of the same murder," Blidberg told a news conference. Under Swedish law arrest on "probable grounds" means there is stronger evidence than when "reasonable grounds" are cited, as in the first arrest.
No details were given of the new suspect's identity but the police referred to a "he" and Stockholm police chief Leif Jennekvist said his looks were "not unlike" a man filmed by security cameras at the store where Lindh was stabbed.
Lindh, a 46-year-old mother of two, was given an emotional farewell last Friday at a ceremony attended by her family, comrades in the ruling Social Democrat party, European leaders and Sweden's king and queen.
She was stabbed repeatedly by a lone man while shopping in central Stockholm and died of massive bleeding. The minister had no bodyguard, which is normal for Nordic politicians.