Swedish man charged with terrorism could face life in prison

LONDON

A Swedish man who was found guilty of terrorism could face life in prison, media reports said Tuesday.

The prosecutor in the case, Henrik Olin, requested that Theodor Engstrom be jailed for life for the murder of Ing-Marie Wieselgren, plotting to kill Center Party leader Annie Loof and terrorism. Engstrom confessed to the murder in court.

Wieselgren was stabbed to death at Donner's place, a square in central Visby, in July during a political gathering known as Almedal week. Engstrom was arrested near the scene.

"It is rarely you sit in a trial and have such solid evidence of a murder as we have in this situation," said Olin, according to SVT television.

Engstrom's lawyer, Staffan Fredriksson, argued that his client should not be put in prison because a forensic psychiatric investigation found that Engstrom was affected with a serious mental disorder at the time of the murder.

But Olin disagreed, citing that during legal proceedings Engstrom has been in normal detention.

"It is not possible to ignore Engstrom's old notes where he reasoned about aiming for forensic psychiatric care if he is arrested," Olin told the court, SVT reported.

He added that Engstrom is not being medicated by psychiatrists.

Engstrom was removed from the procedure after he interrupted the prosecutor and had an outburst.

A sentence will be handed down Dec. 6.