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Denmark's most notorious inmate, serving a life sentence for murdering a journalist aboard his homemade submarine, has sued the Danish state over legislation that bars him from cultivating new relationships, with the verdict due on Thursday.
A law introduced in 2022 restricts life prisoners to having visits, and letters while telephone contact is only allowed with people already close to them before their conviction, during the first 10 years of their sentence.
Peter Madsen, 52, claims the law violates his fundamental rights to a private life as defined by the European Convention on Human Rights.
The submarine enthusiast and self-taught engineer was convicted in April 2018 of the premeditated murder and sexual assault of 30-year-old award-winning Swedish journalist Kim Wall when she went to interview him on board his submarine in August 2017.
He confessed to chopping up her body and stuffing her head, arms and legs into plastic bags, weighing them down with metal pipes before tossing them into the sea.
His high-profile trial unveiled his interest in violent sex and snuff films of women being beheaded, skinned, tortured and impaled.
The gruesome crime gripped Denmark, one of the safest countries on the planet, and made headlines around the world, prompting the government to introduce the only legislation of its kind in Europe.
Wall's murder made international headlines and was turned into a Netflix documentary in 2020.
Watch the trailer for "Into the Deep".
