Woman locked in cabin for nine years

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A 58-year-old man suspected of keeping a woman locked up in a tiny cabin in southern Sweden for nine years has been ordered by a court to be held in custody, local media reported.

The man, who denied all charges, was suspected of having kept his common-law wife imprisoned since 1999 in a cabin measuring 15 square meters in a small community near the town of Eksjo.

The woman, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, weighed less than 40 kilos (88 pounds) when she was admitted to hospital earlier this week, Swedish television channel SVT reported on its website.

A prosecutor told news agency TT there was no indication this was due to ill treatment, but rather to her illness.

The woman was reported to be in stable condition and the court remanded her partner in custody on Friday, ordering that he be given a psychiatric examination, TT reported.

In a further twist to the case, authorities have not been able to verify the identity of the 58-year-old. The identity he provided to the police was that of a man who was declared dead eight years ago, according to official records.

The man was brought in for questioning and later arrested on Wednesday after suspicions had been aroused when the woman was brought to hospital a few days earlier.

(Reporting by Niklas Pollard; Editing by Charles Dick)