Magnotta ordered held pending extradition

BERLIN (AP) — A Berlin court has ordered the sus­pect in the slay­ing and dis­mem­ber­ing of a Chi­nese stu­dent in Mon­tréal be held in pre-extradition cus­tody as his likely return to Canada edges closer, author­i­ties said Wednesday.

Berlin state court spokesman Tobias Kaehne said the court decided at the end of last week that there was enough evi­dence to keep sus­pect Luka Rocco Mag­notta behind bars pend­ing extradition.

“That means that he must now remain in cus­tody until a pos­si­ble extra­di­tion to Canada,” he said.

Mag­notta and his attor­ney had to be informed of the deci­sion before it could be announced to the public.

Berlin state pros­e­cu­tors now must for­mally request the Ger­man Jus­tice and For­eign Min­istries to sign off on the extra­di­tion, said pros­e­cu­tors’ spokesman Mar­tin Steltner.

“We hope it will go quickly,” he said.

Mag­notta, 29, has said he will not fight extra­di­tion, though it is still pos­si­ble for his defense attor­ney to raise objections.

Magnotta’s court-appointed lawyer, Eve­lyn Ascher, has declined comment.

Even if the extra­di­tion is uncon­tested, author­i­ties say it could still be up to two weeks before they are finally able to return Mag­notta to Canada where he faces charges of mur­der, defil­ing a corpse and using the mail sys­tem for deliv­er­ing “obscene, inde­cent, immoral or scur­rilous” material.

Mag­notta, a porn actor, is sus­pected of killing and dis­mem­ber­ing stu­dent Jun Lin before send­ing some of his body parts to Cana­dian polit­i­cal par­ties and schools.

Inves­ti­ga­tors say Mag­notta killed Lin and post­ing a video online show­ing him hav­ing sex with the dis­mem­bered corpse. Police also say the video shows him eat­ing parts of the victim’s body.

Mag­notta fled Canada first to Paris, and was then caught last week at an Inter­net café in Berlin where he was read­ing about the inter­na­tional man­hunt for him. A café worker rec­og­nized Mag­notta from news­pa­per reports and flagged down pass­ing police.

Lin’s torso was found two weeks ago in a suit­case at a garbage dump in Mon­tréal, out­side the apart­ment build­ing where he is thought to have been killed. Police said a foot and hand were also mailed to two Van­cou­ver schools. His head is still missing.

His fam­ily is call­ing for the sus­pect to be extra­dited back to Canada as soon as pos­si­ble so that jus­tice can be done and bring con­so­la­tion to the family.

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Arti­cle Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_CANADA_BODY_PARTS?SITE=COBOU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT