Kaj Linna was sentenced to life in jail over a brutal combined robbery and murder in Kalamark in the far north of Sweden in 2004, despite a lack of forensic evidence or an eye witness linking him to the scene. 
 
 He always denied having committed the murder and at the end of last year, after new evidence was presented in a Swedish crime podcast based on global phenomenon 'Serial', he was granted a retrial. 
 
 On Thursday the court formally cleared Linna of all charges, confirming what it had indicated at the end of the trial last month when it released him pending the verdict. 
 
 The judge of the court of appeals for Övre Norrland, Margareta Bergström, said in a statement: "Our conclusion is that the evidence presented in the trial is insufficient and therefore cannot lead to conviction." 
 
 Linna's case dates back to April 2004, when two brothers were attacked on a farm some 20 kilometres from Piteå. One of the brothers was killed; the other was assaulted but survived. The latter, who was disabled because of a stroke, was found by social services two days later and said he had recognized the voice of a man who had previously done business with the brothers and who they perceived as threatening. 
 
 The man, who had an alibi, instead mentioned Linna as a potential suspect and pointed police in the direction of another man who had more information. That man became the main witness at the trial and said Linna had told him of plans to rob the brothers. 
 
 Linna's fight for a retrial has been a long-running feature in Swedish media, with newspaper DN's reporter Stefan Lisinski one of those who had pointed out several errors and gaps in the main witness' story. The Supreme Court ordered the appeals court to retry the case last year after the same witness, speaking to Swedish crime podcast Spår, changed the details of the account he gave to the police. The witness had also offered new information in a documentary about the case by Swedish filmmaker Mårten Barkvall. 
 
 "My time in jail was completely wasted, worthless," commented Linna on Thursday. He has previously said he intends to seek damages from the Swedish state, but added money could not repay him for the time lost. 
 
 Nonetheless, he is likely to be awarded significant payouts, legal experts agreed. In a similar case, Joy Rahman, a Swedish-Bangladeshi man who spent eight years in jail over a woman's murder, received 10.2 million kronor in damages after it was found in 2002 that he had been wrongfully convicted. 
 
 "I would be surprised if Kaj Linna's compensation does not break the record," law professor Mårten Schultz of Stockholm University told Swedish news agency TT. 
 
 Created by Swedish podcast platform Acast and hosted by Anton Berg and Martin Johnson, Spår was launched in 2015 to take a closer look at the case in its first five-episode season, inspired by the hugely popular US investigative podcast Serial. 
 
 "Spår hosts Anton and Martin should be amazingly proud that their series has helped bring about justice for Kaj Linna and that he can now walk free, though the tragedy of the last 13 years can never be undone," Karl Rosander, Spår executive producer and co-founder of Acast, told The Local on Thursday. 
 
 "This result is a landmark moment for podcasts as a cultural phenomenon. It shows that not only can podcasts inform and entertain, but they can also form investigations that shape real-life events." ||||| Image copyright Acast Image caption Kaj Linna (right) was pictured after his release with Spar host Anton Berg 
 
 A man who has spent 13 years in prison in Sweden charged with murder has been released after new evidence came to light in a true crime podcast. 
 
 Spar, hosted by journalists Anton Berg and Martin Johnson and released via podcast platform Acast, has been examining the imprisonment of Kaj Linna for the last two years. 
 
 Mr Linna was initially sentenced to life in prison in 2004 for murder and robbery. 
 
 Robert Lindberg was killed in an attack in northern Sweden which also left his brother Sune injured. 
 
 But a witness who had been involved in the initial trial appeared to undermine his own testimony while being interviewed for the podcast. 
 
 After the episode was released, Mr Linna used the audio as part of his appeal, and a retrial was granted in December. 
 
 The audio was also used in court proceedings during the retrial, which concluded at the end of May and found there had been insufficient evidence to convict Mr Linna. 
 
 Mr Linna has now been released from prison and reunited with his family. 
 
 In a statement, the Swedish Court of Appeal president Margareta Bergstrom said: "Our conclusion is that the evidence presented at trial is insufficient and therefore can not lead to a conviction." 
 
 'Crucial' new evidence 
 
 "We're very happy and relieved. We are frankly impressed that a podcast could have this kind of impact," Berg told the BBC. 
 
 Acast co-founder Karl Rosander added: "It means so much because Kaj Linna has been in jail for 13 years. We actually helped free an innocent man, it's so amazing, and I'm happy for the journalists who wanted to look at the story." 
 
 The series looking at Mr Linna's case has released eight episodes so far, with each one attracting around 300,000 listeners, according to Berg. 
 
 "We released the podcast in May 2015, and the retrial was granted by the Supreme Court in December 2016, so that process alone took a year and a half," he explained. 
 
 The retrial was granted partly due to the audio which had been gathered by Berg and Johnson during the production of the podcast. 
 
 Image copyright Acast Image caption Spar attracts around 300,000 listeners per episode in Sweden 
 
 "We met with a man who was the main witness, and he came up with a different story to the one he put forward in the trial," Berg said. 
 
 "We had two different microphones in that interview, I was doing the main recording and Martin was sitting next to me and he had a stereo microphone which was there to record atmosphere. 
 
 "The witness asked us to switch off the microphone at one point, which I did, and he started giving us details which he had not put forward in the trial. 
 
 "When we got home, we found out that Martin's microphone had been on all the time. Then I called the man and said we had it, but strangely he said that he was fine with that and we could use the audio." 
 
 'Wasted time' 
 
 Mr Linna's fight for a retrial has been covered widely in the Swedish media since the audio came to light. 
 
 "The Supreme Court listened to the interview with the witness, and when they did they made quite a fuss about this decision and they granted the retrial. They said that it was crucial, because there were things that the courts hadn't been told before," Berg said. 
 
 "The case had been built on the testimony of the man we spoke to, and after we interviewed him, he started giving us a new version of events. He was clearly not trustworthy or reliable." 
 
 He added: "I hope the police will now further investigate this crime, because it's a terrible thing that's happened. It's a murder and robbery, and now it's unsolved again." 
 
 It is the longest-served sentence to be followed by a retrial in Sweden's legal history. 
 
 Speaking to Swedish media on Thursday, Mr Linna said: "My time in jail was completely wasted, worthless." 
 
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– The Serial podcast seems to have helped Adnan Syed get a new trial. But a podcast inspired by Serial might have gone one step further. As one person involved puts it to the BBC, "We actually helped free an innocent man." Kaj Linna had served 11 years of a life sentence for murder and robbery in Sweden when true-crime podcast Spar drew attention to his case in May 2015. Over eight episodes, journalists Anton Berg and Martin Johnson told how Robert Lindberg had been killed and his brother injured in an attack on a farm and how the brother had thought the attacker might've been a former business associate. The associate had an alibi, however, and he suggested Linna as a suspect instead. He steered police to a third man, who became the main witness in Linna's trial and claimed that Linna had planned to rob the Lindbergs, per the Local. Linna was found guilty and imprisoned for the crime in 2004. Of particular importance, however, was an interview the main witness gave to Spar years later. After asking that his microphone be turned off, "he came up with a different story to the one he put forward in the trial," Berg says. He adds that the main microphone had indeed been turned off, but a secondary one inadvertently recorded everything the witness said. Linna used the audio during an appeal and was granted a retrial in December. On Thursday, the Swedish Court of Appeal acquitted him, citing "insufficient" evidence for conviction. Berg says the podcast team is "happy and relieved" and "frankly impressed that a podcast could have this kind of impact." Linna is expected to receive a major payout.