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. 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. Robert Lindberg was killed in an attack in northern Sweden which also left his brother Sune injured. 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." "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. 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. 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. They said that it was crucial, because there were things that the courts hadn't been told before," Berg said. Speaking to Swedish media on Thursday, Mr Linna said: "My time in jail was completely wasted, worthless."
– 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.