Magnotta due to make second court appearance via video

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MONTREAL (NEWS1130). – Luka Rocco Magnotta is scheduled to make a second court appearance today.

Just like his initial appearance on Tuesday, the 29-year-old murder suspect is expected to appear in a Montreal court via a video link.

He was formally charged this week with the first-degree murder of university student Jun Lin, along with defiling his corpse.

Magnotta, who has pleaded not guilty, is also accused of harassing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and MPs, and publishing and mailing obscene material.

His lawyer may request a psychiatric evaluation during today’s proceedings. If the request is granted, Magnotta would be sent to a psychiatric facility for not more than 30 days, after which a report would be filed.

Magnotta has pledged to protest his innocence in a slaying-and-dismemberment case that resulted in the death of Montreal university student Jun Lin.

Magnotta returned to Canada from Germany aboard a military plane on Monday. He was shackled and taken into custody at Mirabel airport, north of Montreal, under a heavy police guard and driven to an undisclosed location.

Before his arrest in Germany, Magnotta, a little-known porn actor and prostitute, was named as a suspect in a crime so brutal that it made him the target of an international manhunt. He was arrested in a Berlin Internet cafe while apparently reading news stories about himself.

A motorcade of vehicles with flashing lights rolled out to meet Magnotta at Mirabel and a half-dozen men escorted him off the plane, onto the tarmac, and into an unmarked minivan.

  • Watch video of Magnotta getting off the plane and into the unmarked minivan.

Magnotta’s supposed victim was found in multiple pieces.

Lin’s torso was found inside a suitcase in an alley outside Magnotta’s Montreal apartment building and his hands and feet mailed to the offices of political parties in Ottawa and schools in Vancouver.

DNA tests have confirmed that all the body parts belong to Lin, a Chinese national who was studying computer science at Concordia University.

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