Verdict expected in cannibal retrial
A German court was expected to deliver its verdict today in the retrial of a man who admitted killing and eating an internet acquaintance, with prosecutors seeking a murder conviction and life prison sentence.
Lawyers for Armin Meiwes, a 44-year-old computer technician, have argued that he should be convicted of “death on demand”, which carries a maximum five-year term, on the grounds that he was only following his victim’s wishes.
The retrial of Meiwes, whose case has fascinated and appalled Germany, opened in January. It was held after a federal appeals court overturned his initial conviction to allow prosecutors to seek a tougher sentence.
At the Frankfurt retrial, Meiwes renewed a detailed confession, telling the court his version of the grisly details of the March 2001 killing of Bernd Juergen Brandes at Meiwes’ home in the central town of Rotenburg.
Meiwes said Brandes, who had travelled from Berlin after answering his internet posting under the pseudonym “Franky” seeking a young man for “slaughter and consumption”, wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness.
He testified that Brandes, 43, had wanted to “be eaten alive”.
“Otherwise, I would never have done it,” Meiwes told the court.
In early 2004, a court in the city of Kassel convicted Meiwes of manslaughter and sentenced him to eight and a half years in prison, but prosecutors appealed against the verdict.
Federal judges overturned the original ruling last year and ordered a retrial, arguing the lower court, in rejecting murder charges, failed to give sufficient consideration to the sexual motive behind the killing.
