Inventor Peter Madsen has been charged with murdering Swedish journalist Kim Wall during a trip on his private submarine, a Danish prosecutor has said.
Confirming the charges on Tuesday, Jakob Buch-Jepsen said that the case is “very unusual and extremely gross”.
Police said Madsen may have killed Wall on board his homebuilt submarine by cutting her throat or by strangulation.
Madsen is charged with murder as well as indecent handling of a corpse for disposing of Wall’s body.
According to the charge sheet, Madsen is accused of “prior planning and preparation”, the Copenhagen Post reported. The newspaper said prosecutors were seeking life imprisonment for Madsen when the matter goes to trial in March.
Madsen has also been charged with two counts of severe violation of the Act on Safety at Sea, with the recommendation that his submarine, Nautilus, should be confiscated and destructed.
Madsen claims Wall died accidentally inside the submarine while he was on deck during the excursion in August last year.
He has, however, admitted throwing her body parts into the sea.
Wall, a 30-year-old freelance journalist who was researching a story on the entrepreneur and aerospace engineer, went missing after he took her out to sea in his 17-metre (56-foot) submarine.