Magnotta expected to drop appeal of conviction

Published reports say Luka Rocco Magnotta will withdraw his appeal of a conviction in the first- degree murder of Lin Jun.

Magnotta’s case is scheduled to return before the province’s Court of Appeal on Wednesday, less than a month after he announced he was appealing the conviction and wanted a new trial.

Radio- Canada reported Tuesday that Magnotta’s lawyer Luc Leclair has told them he will withdraw his client’s two appeals on Wednesday.

Reached by phone, the lawyer for Magnotta, Toronto- based Luc Leclair, said he had no comment on the reports that he would withdraw his client’s appeals on Wednesday. He denied having spoken to media about the appeals.

“I have no comments at this point,” he told The Canadian Press in reference to the reports Tuesday from Radio- Canada and Frenchlanguage network TVA.

A spokesman for Quebec’s director of criminal and penal prosecutions said he was unaware of such a development.

A clerk at the Quebec Court of Appeal said they had yet to receive any notice from Magnotta’s lawyer. Magnotta was found guilty of first- degree murder last December in the 2012 slaying and dismemberment of Lin, a Chinese engineering student.

Magnotta, 32, also was given the maximum possible sentences on the four other charges: criminally harassing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other members of Parliament; mailing obscene and indecent material; committing an indignity to a body; and publishing obscene materials.

The first- degree murder conviction carried a sentence of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years.