MONTREAL - Alleged body-parts killer Luka Rocco Magnotta is being interrogated Tuesday morning under near-unprecedented security in a horrific murder that made international headlines.

Detectives want to know the location of body parts that were cut off of Chinese student Jun Lin, Magnotta's ex-lover.

Magnotta is the prime suspect in the murder of the 33-year-old, whose torso was found outside Magnotta's Montreal apartment late last month.

Lin's hand and foot were mailed to political parties in Ottawa and two other appendages were sent to two Vancouver schools. But one part is still missing.

"The first question is where the head can be found," Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere said Tuesday.

Magnotta, a 29-year-old former porn actor, will be arraigned by video conference at 2:30 p.m., on charges including first-degree murder, indignity to a corpse and criminal harassment of Prime Minster Stephen Harper.

Crown spokesman Rene Verret said Magnotta made no special requests and remained quiet.

It wasn't immediately clear if Magnotta would hire a lawyer or have one provided by legal aid.

Sources tell QMI Agency that a number of Crown lawyers are eager to prosecute the case, but that defence lawyers are less enthusiastic about taking on the file.

Police said the murder was filmed and posted online, and the clip has been downloaded thousands of times.

A video courtroom link was set up to avoid a massive, and expensive, security detail that would be needed to secure Magnotta during trips from his north-end jail cell to the downtown courthouse.

Dozens of police officers and border agents escorted Magnotta from a military jet that arrived from Germany on Monday evening. A convoy of vehicles, including officers with machine guns, transported him to a booking centre.

Critics said taxpayers shouldn't have to pay such exorbitant sums to transport just one man, but Lafreniere defended the extraordinary measures.

He said high-level security was to stymie "admirers, unfortunately, of Magnotta."

Lafreniere said the large jet, an Airbus Polaris military transport plane, was needed to make a direct flight from Berlin -- where Magnotta fled following the alleged murder.

Lafreniere explained that a refuelling stop with a criminal on board presents "a diplomatic problem."