Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Mijailo Mijailovic, who's admitted stabbing Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh to death in September, pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder, arguing that the attack wasn't premeditated.

Mijailovic's lawyer, Peter Althin, told the Stockholm District Court as proceedings began today that the 25-year-old didn't plan for the crime and shouldn't be sentenced for murder.

``Mijailo didn't have any intention of killing Anna Lindh,'' Althin told the court. The trial is being broadcast by Swedish Radio.

Lindh, 46 and a mother of two, died on Sept. 11 after being stabbed at a Stockholm department store the previous afternoon. She was one of Sweden's most popular politicians and tipped to become the country's first female prime minister. Her killing caused a national outpouring of grief, reviving memories of the 1986 murder of then-prime minister Olof Palme.

Prosecutor Agneta Blidberg showed footage from surveillance cameras at the NK department store where Lindh was attacked that allegedly captured Mijailovic in the minutes before the assault. The footage shows a man dressed in a gray hooded sweater, a dark baseball cap and green trousers walking around the store. The cameras didn't capture the attack.

Should the court find that Mijailovic didn't plan the attack on Lindh, he may be sentenced to the lesser crime of manslaughter. Manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison in Sweden, while murder may lead to life imprisonment. Sweden doesn't have the death penalty.

Mijailovic's Testimony

Following a request by the defendant, Chief Justice Goeran Nilsson banned broadcasting Mijailovic's testimony, which began at 1:30 p.m. In his testimony, Mijailovic said he hoped Lindh would survive the attack, Agence France-Presse reported.

Mijailovic also said he charged at Lindh as soon as he saw her, denying that he followed her around the department store, newspaper Expressen reported.

Police were able to secure DNA traces linking Mijailovic to the knife used to stab Lindh. Investigators also found Lindh's blood on his clothes. Lindh died of damage to her liver and abdominal blood vessels from multiple stab wounds.

Mijailovic, the son of Yugoslav immigrants, was arrested two weeks after the killing. He confessed to police last week after claiming innocence since his arrest.

Hearing Voices

In the interrogation, Mijailovic said voices inside his head told him to stab Lindh. The attack wasn't planned, he said.

``I think it was Jesus, that he chose me,'' Mijailovic said when asked whose voice commanded him to stab Lindh, according to a transcript of the questioning published by Dagens Nyheter.

Althin has said he'll ask for a psychiatric evaluation of Mijailovic to determine whether he was mentally capable at the time of the killing, Dagens Nyheter reported.

The confession should shorten the trial because prosecutors don't have to prove Mijailovic committed the crime, Chief Prosecutor Krister Petersson said in an interview last week. The trial is scheduled to end Monday, according to a statement on the court's Web site.

Blidberg has said prosecutors will call three witnesses: Eva Franchell, Lindh's friend who was with her when Mijailovic attacked, the coroner who examined Lindh's body, and a U.K. forensic scientist who examined the knife.

Mijailovic has a history of violence, media reports have said. In 1996, at age 17, he stabbed his father with a kitchen knife following an argument. Since being arrested, Mijailovic has been treated for depression, newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported Friday. He had also sought treatment shortly after killing Lindh, news reports said.

Like Palme in 1986, Lindh was without bodyguards when attacked. Christer Pettersson, a Swede with a lengthy criminal record, was convicted of murdering Palme in 1989, though was later freed on appeal. Palme's killing remains unsolved.

Lindh was one of the foremost proponents of Sweden's joining the euro. Swedes rejected the single currency in a referendum three days after her death.

Last Updated: January 14, 2004 09:38 EST