Mijailo Mijailović

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Surveillance photo of Mijailović at crime scene.

Mijailo Mijailović (Serbian Cyrillic: Мијаило Мијаиловић, born 6 December 1978 in Stockholm, to Serbian immigrant parents) is the self-confessed and convicted assassin of the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs named Anna Lindh, who was assassinated on September 10, 2003.

Swedish newspapers have suggested that he was released from a mental institution just five days before the killing of Lindh, that he has serious mental problems, and had previously been convicted of violent crimes. Mijailović is said to have been greatly angered by Lindh's staunch support for the U.S.-led military campaign against Serbia during 1999.

On January 6, 2004, after being presented with the evidence against him, he confessed to the police that he killed Anna Lindh. The court trial against Mijailović took place January 14-17, 2004. He was found guilty, but the sentencing was postponed to await the recommendations of a psychiatric evaluation ordered by the court.

On March 9 a report concluded that Mijailović was not considered to be criminally insane at the time of the assassination, and on March 23 he was sentenced to life imprisonment. However, on July 8, an appeals court overturned that sentence after tests had concluded that he was suffering from a mental illness at the time of the killing. As a result of the appeals court decision, Mijailović was taken from prison to a closed psychiatric ward.

Mijailović was for some time a citizen of both Serbia and Montenegro and of Sweden, but after the crime applied to have his Swedish citizenship revoked. His application was granted by the Swedish National Migration Board on September 20, 2004; however this did not have any effect on the judicial process.

On December 2, 2004, Mijailović was sentenced by the Supreme Court of Sweden to life imprisonment for the killing of Anna Lindh, overruling the appeals court judgement.