A Swedish appeals court overturned a life sentence against the man who fatally stabbed Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh last year, ordering him instead into psychiatric care. The Svea Court of Appeals upheld an earlier ruling that Mijailo Mijailovic, 25, committed murder when he knifed Lindh repeatedly on September 10, but said that rather than spending life behind bars for the crime he needed psychiatric care. The appeals court said Mijailovic "committed the crime under the influence of a serious psychiatric disorder and he still suffers from this disorder". It cited experts who concluded that he suffered from an "unspecified psychotic syndrome". Lindh died of her injuries on September 11, a day after Mijailovic knifed her repeatedly in the stomach, chest and arms while she was shopping at a Stockholm department store without a bodyguard. Her murder sent Sweden into a state of shock 17 years after the still unsolved 1986 assassination of prime minister Olof Palme. Mijailovic was jailed for life by a Stockholm district court in March but had appealed the ruling, arguing that although he inflicted Lindh's fatal injuries he did not intend to take her life. Intent to kill is a prerequisite for a murder conviction in Sweden. "It has been proven that Mijailo Mijailovic was completely indifferent as to whether Anna Lindh would die of her stab wounds and he therefore had intent to kill," a unanimous appeals court ruled. While he had hoped to be freed entirely from the murder charge, Mijailovic had through his lawyer Peter Althin asked the court to order him into psychiatric care if it did choose to uphold the murder conviction. Althin said Thursday he was "very pleased" with the court's decision. Mijailovic will first be transferred to a special psychiatric clinic in Stockholm before being placed permanently in one of Sweden's psychiatric institutes for criminals. A life sentence in Sweden is normally around 15 years but can be longer, while being ordered to psychiatric care is indefinite and means that the convict can be released once he is deemed healthy. However, the appeals court specified in its ruling that Mijailovic can only be released from psychiatric care after a review by a county administrative court, at which the public prosecutor is entitled to a say. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Mijailo Mijailovic (C) sits in a courtroom during his trial. (AFP)