COPENHAGEN: A Danish court ordered the owner of an amateur-built submarine on Saturday to be held in pre-trial detention for 24 days while police investigate the disappearance of a Swedish journalist who had been on the ship before it sank.

Peter Madsen was arrested on Friday on preliminary manslaughter charges, hours after his 40-ton, nearly 18-metre-long (60-foot-long) submarine sank off Denmark’s eastern coast.

He has denied responsibility for the fate of 30-year-old Kim Wall, saying the journalist disembarked before his vessel, named the UC3 Nautilus, went down.

Judge Kari Soerensen announced the ruling after a two-hour custody hearing held behind closed doors.

Madsen’s defence lawyer, Bettina Hald Engmark, said her client maintains his innocence.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2017