They are convicted of aggravated abuse of a corpse and of murder. They have previously been suspected of having planned to murder the man's father.
The wife is sentenced to life imprisonment; she is a citizen of another country.
The victim, who was in her 60s, is believed to have been murdered on the night of June 13 last year in the couple's home. Four days later, she was reported missing by her son. She was later found dead in a lake, dismembered and wrapped in several storage bags, according to the verdict.
"Brutal knife attack"
The plans to murder the mother had been in place for a long time, according to the court. The motive was said to have been money. On the night of the murder, the couple had invited the mother to their home to eat Thai food together.
"The district court's conclusion is that the murder was planned and that it largely consisted of a brutal knife attack when the woman was completely defenseless. After death, the body was treated in an extremely abusive manner, which caused the relatives further suffering. The murder warrants life imprisonment," says court chairman Anders Dereborg in a press release.
Blaming each other
Both defendants deny the crime and blame each other for the murder. Both admit that they were present when the woman was killed and that they were involved in handling her body.
The convicted woman claims that she was subjected to psychological control by the man, but the district court dismisses that explanation and points out that the investigation shows that the couple "confirmed and reinforced each other in an ever-increasing aversion to the woman."
The man has undergone a forensic psychiatric examination and is not considered to suffer from any serious mental disorder.
