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Sweden Hunts for Foreign Minister's Killer

Posted on: Friday, 12 September 2003, 06:00 CDT

Police widened their search for suspects in the stabbing death of Sweden's foreign minister, combing homeless shelters and hotels for a mysterious acne-scarred man believed to be the killer.

Conflicting polls on Thursday showed Swedes remained split over a referendum on whether to adopt the euro despite the death of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, an ardent supporter of the common currency.

Police said they were hunting for a stocky man with bad skin who stabbed Lindh in the stomach, chest and arm in an upscale Stockholm department store on Wednesday. Borders and ferries were being monitored closely, but no arrests had been made.

Swedish media reported police were looking for a specific suspect, a 32-year-old man with a criminal record. However, police spokesman Lars Groenskog said that was "definitely not true."

Earlier Friday, another spokesman said police overnight searched shelters and hotels in Stockholm, and that authorities were focusing on gathering information from witnesses.

"There is new information coming in all the time," spokesman Mats Nylen said.

There were still no results of the technical analysis of the clothes or the murder weapon, a knife, which the killer is believed to have thrown away when fleeing the scene of the murder, he said. The killer also left behind a camouflage jacket.

Still haunted by the unsolved 1986 murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme, police are under intense pressure to find the killer.

They unsure if the attack was politically motivated, although it came just days before the euro vote on Sunday. Lindh was a leading campaigner for replacing the Swedish krona with the common currency.

Polling institute SKOP found the yes and no sides even, while Sifo said euro opponents maintained a 12 percentage point lead. Both polls were conducted Thursday.

The SKOP poll showed an increase in the `yes' votes since Lindh's death, while the Sifo poll showed a rise in `no' votes.

Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson said the referendum would continue as scheduled, but ordered all campaigning to end immediately.

"It feels so unfair," he said in a nationally televised speech. "Anna Lindh was pulled away from us in the middle of her achievement, in the middle of her work. She had so much left to do, so much left to give."

He recited a promise Lindh delivered at Palme's funeral in 1986.

"According to our ability we will continue your fight. The fight for peace and international solidarity, the fight for a free and open Sweden," he said. "Our thanks to you is to carry on your message."

The attack raised concerns in Sweden and its Nordic neighbors about the openness of their countries, where it's common to see a prime minister jogging without bodyguards or police, and politicians strolling the streets with their families.

Critics said Sweden's security agency, known as SAPO, should have learned more from the killing of Palme, who was shot while walking home from a movie theater with his wife. That slaying has not been solved.

Although security was tightened after Palme's murder, only the prime minister and the king are afforded round-the-clock protection. Other Cabinet ministers, like Lindh, only have them when SAPO officials say they're needed.

SAPO said Lindh had no bodyguards because the agency said there were no threats made toward her.

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