In a case that made national and international headlines two years ago, a man accused of killing a visiting Chinese foreign exchange student in Montreal appeared in court on Monday.
Luka Rocco Magnotta, 31, sat in the prisoner’s box listening impassively as a Quebec Superior Court judge ruled against a publication ban on evidence presented at Mr. Magnotta’s trial scheduled to begin in September in Montreal.
He is charged with first-first degree murder in the May, 25, 2012 death of Lin Jun, a 33-year-old engineering student at Concordia University.
Mr. Magnotta, who was born Eric Clinton Kirk Newman in Scarborough, Ontario, is accused of killing and dismembering Mr. Jun and then mailing his severed limbs to political parties and elementary schools.
After a video allegedly depicting the murder was posted online, Mr. Magnotta fled Canada. He became the subject of an international Interpol manhunt and was was apprehended at an Internet café in Berlin while reading news about himself
Previously, animal rights groups had called for his arrest for allegedly uploading videos of himself killing kittens.
Mr. Magnotta, who listed his profession as a pornographic actor and model, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 8.
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