A sound Swedish leader makes amends (6)
I believe the answer is:
atones
'makes amends' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a sound swedish leader' is the wordplay.
'sound' becomes 'tone' (tone is a kind of sound).
'leader' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'swedish' is 's'.
'a'+'tone'+'s'='ATONES'
(Other definitions for atones that I've seen before include "Makes up for, say sin" , "Makes reparation" , "Make amends for sin" , "Makes up for wrong done with a stone" , "Does penance with a stone" .)