Danish inventor faces murder charge over slain reporter

By Ilker Girit

ISTANBUL

Danish inventor Peter Madsen has denied the murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall, police said in a statement on Friday.

Madsen had been charged with manslaughter until a DNA match between a female torso found in waters south of Copenhagen and Wall’s hairbrush and toothbrush was made this week.

Danish police are now saying Madsen is also being charged with the "indecent treatment" of Wall's corpse.

Autopsy results on the torso found on Monday revealed that the missing limbs and head had been cut away deliberately.

On Monday, police said 46-year-old Madsen claimed Wall, 30, died in an accident, and that he buried her at sea in his private submarine.

Wall had been onboard Madsen’s craft as part of research she was conducting for an article on the inventor.

"The defendant has explained to the police and the Court that there was an accident on board which caused Kim Wall’s death and that he consequently buried her at sea at a non-defined location in the Bay of Koge," Copenhagen police said on Monday.

However, Madsen’s lawyer, Betina Hald Engmark, told Danish newspaper BT early on Wednesday that the DNA match did not change “my client’s explanation that an accident has occurred”.

Madsen had invited Wall on a short voyage on the night of Aug. 10, but the journalist was later reported missing.

The sunken submarine was located by the emergency services on Aug. 11, according to local media, but Wall’s body had remained unfound.

In his first police interrogation, Madsen had initially claimed Wall had left the 40-ton vessel of her own will.

Wall, who had been a reporter for a number of international media outlets, was remembered in a New York vigil earlier this week.

In a statement about the case on Friday, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir, said: “Regrettably, journalism is a risky profession for many of those practicing it.

“Those working in the field fully deserve public respect and protection.

“Female journalists are particularly vulnerable to attack and intimidation.”