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DNA results awaited of top suspect in Swedish Foreign Minister`s murder
Stockholm, Sept 17: Swedish police were rushing today to conduct DNA testing on a man arrested overnight as the top suspect in the killing of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, amid media reports he had close links to neo-Nazi organisations.
Stockholm, Sept 17: Swedish police were rushing today to conduct DNA testing on a man arrested overnight as the top suspect in the killing of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, amid media reports he had close links to neo-Nazi organisations.
Police hope that the genetic testing will link the man to the crime scene. The assailant left traces of his own blood, a knife, a baseball cap and a sweatshirt behind after he fled the NK department store where he fatally stabbed Lindh on September 10.
"The man for whom an arrest warrant had been issued has been caught," Stockholm police spokeswoman Stina Wessling told AFP. "We are satisfied."
The man "will undergo a physical examination for DNA," Stockholm Serious Crime Division Chief Leif Jennekvist told a news conference called just two hours after the arrest.
Swedish police can only hold a suspect for three days before a fresh detention order has to be issued on the basis of evidence. Preliminary DNA testing can take up to 24 hours.
DNA testing conducted on elements from the crime scene has already been run through the Swedish police's databanks but turned up no matches.
Police did not reveal the name of the suspect, who was apprehended at 9:07 pm (0037 ist) in a pub-restaurant next to the Raasunda Stadium in Stockholm's Solna suburb, watching a football match on a giant screen.
"It is a breakthrough that the person who is suspected of the murder of Anna Lindh is at the Kronoberg jail" at police headquarters in Stockholm, Jennekvist said.
Bureau Report
Police hope that the genetic testing will link the man to the crime scene. The assailant left traces of his own blood, a knife, a baseball cap and a sweatshirt behind after he fled the NK department store where he fatally stabbed Lindh on September 10.
"The man for whom an arrest warrant had been issued has been caught," Stockholm police spokeswoman Stina Wessling told AFP. "We are satisfied."
The man "will undergo a physical examination for DNA," Stockholm Serious Crime Division Chief Leif Jennekvist told a news conference called just two hours after the arrest.
Swedish police can only hold a suspect for three days before a fresh detention order has to be issued on the basis of evidence. Preliminary DNA testing can take up to 24 hours.
DNA testing conducted on elements from the crime scene has already been run through the Swedish police's databanks but turned up no matches.
Police did not reveal the name of the suspect, who was apprehended at 9:07 pm (0037 ist) in a pub-restaurant next to the Raasunda Stadium in Stockholm's Solna suburb, watching a football match on a giant screen.
"It is a breakthrough that the person who is suspected of the murder of Anna Lindh is at the Kronoberg jail" at police headquarters in Stockholm, Jennekvist said.
Bureau Report