Stockholm, Aug 26, (dpa/GNA) – A man facing terrorism charges, for killing a woman at a political festival in Sweden last month, is suspected of having planned to kill a former government minister at the same event, according to prosecutors.
Annie Lööf, the head of the Centre Party, was also meant to be a target, a prosecutor said in comments to broadcaster SVT late on Thursday.
A 33-year-old man stands accused of stabbing a psychiatrist to death at the festival in Visby, which lies on the island of Gotland. The suspect was apprehended shortly after the incident, and has confessed to the murder.
Court-appointed psychiatrists have said the man was suffering from a mental disorder, at the time of the incident.
Several days after the murder, Swedish police categorized it as a terrorist attack. The suspect allegedly hoped to spread terror with the murder, as well as with the preparations for the attack, according to prosecutors.
Lööf was at the traditional festival at the time of the attack, and had been expected to appear at a press conference near where the murder occurred. The conference was cancelled, according to Swedish broadcasters, though Lööf later delivered a speech, as had been previously scheduled.
Lööf took to Facebook on Friday to thank her fellow Swedes for their empathy, in light of the situation. “I am convinced that light will win against the dark,” she wrote.
GNA