SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — Luka Rocco Magnotta, charged with first-degree murder in the killing and dismemberment of Montreal student Jun Lin, is set to return to Canada.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Montreal police officers will accompany Magnotta back from Germany on a Canadian military plane.
There were earlier reports that the plane had already left but the aircraft had some technical problems and is now set to take off later today.
The plane will fly to an undisclosed destination in Canada. The charges against Magnotta were filed in Montreal.
Magnotta, who was arrested in a Berlin cybercafé earlier this month following an international manhunt, is in the custody of RCMP officers.
Magnotta, 29, had been held in Germany since his arrest June 4 pending extradition to Canada, a process that was expected to take at least a couple more weeks. Magnotta had indicated that he would not fight the extradition.
Magnotta is wanted on first-degree murder and other charges, including threatening Canadian politicians, following the killing and dismemberment of Lin, a 33-year-old Concordia university student. The crime was allegedly filmed, and body parts confirmed to be Lin's were mailed to several locations in Canada.
Lin's family arrived in Canada earlier this month. In an open letter posted on a Chinese-language website last week his family expressed gratitude to Canadians for the outpouring of support and assistance in the wake of his killing.
In the letter written in Chinese, Lin's family said he was their "pride and joy" and that losing him had dealt them a "destructive blow" and left them at the "breaking point."
Lin's dismembered torso was found in a suitcase outside a Montreal apartment building last month. Police later recovered his hands and feet, which were mailed to the Conservative and Liberal party headquarters in Ottawa and to two schools in Vancouver in the days after his murder.— www.shafaqna.com/english/
