MONTREAL - The lawyer for alleged body-parts killer Luka Magnotta plans to ask for a psychiatric evaluation Tuesday for his infamous client in the gruesome dismemberment and murder of Jun Lin.

Magnotta, 29, also pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges including first-degree murder, indignity to a corpse and criminal harassment of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Lin's 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.

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

Magnotta has been under near-unprecedented security ever since arriving back in Canada on Monday evening. Dozens of police officers and border agents escorted Magnotta from a military jet that arrived from Germany. 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."

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

The slightly built former porn actor stared blankly into the camera as he entered the plea by video-conference.

The judge, Crown, defence and about 100 journalists were at the courthouse for the brief hearing.

At the conclusion of the hearing, defence lawyer Pierre Panaccio asked Magnotta to call him later in the evening, to which the defendant replied, "Ok."

The case was adjourned until Thursday, when the judge will hear arguments on the request for a mental assessment.