That could make a murder charge difficult to apply, while the lesser charge of manslaughter carries a term of 15 years or considerably less, after which Meiwes would be free. The problem, legal experts say, is that Meiwes’s victim wanted to be eaten. Meiwes’s lawyer wants him to be convicted of “killing on request”, a form of illegal euthanasia which carries a sentence of six months to five years. So while prosecutors acknowledge the victim said he wanted to die, they are seeking a life sentence on a charge of murder motivated by sexual urges. Prosecutors in the city of Kassel say a psychiatric examination found Meiwes is not insane but they added that his victim may have been incapable of rational thought. Professor Andreas Marneros, director of the Halle Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, said: “This is cannibalism as a sexual perversion, it’s a phenomenon that has been known about for centuries. Meiwes told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag last week: “I am guilty and regret what I did.” He said he had eaten his victim because he wanted to make him part of himself, a desire that he had satisfied and that would not recur. “He defrosted it little by little and ate it” He is already planning to write his memoirs, his lawyer said.
ARMIN MEIWES VIDEO TAPE TRIAL
Meiwes is expected to repeat his confession at the trial that will be attended by reporters from all over the world. Police arrested Meiwes over a year later, in December 2002, after a tip-off from someone who had spotted another of his adverts on the Internet. “He defrosted it little by little and ate it.” “He believes he ate about 20 kg and there were about 10 kg left over,” said Ermel. Meiwes cut up the body and stored parts in his freezer. Meiwes’ lawyer Harald Ermel said it took the victim nearly 10 hours to bleed to death and that he had repeatedly urged Meiwes to keep on cutting him. Meiwes killed the man, named only as Bernd-Juergen B., with a kitchen knife and filmed the deed on video tape which may be shown at the trial. They met in Meiwes’s elegant half-timbered home in the town of Rotenburg, central Germany, in March 2001. Meiwes, 42, described by his lawyer as a “gentleman of the old school”, has confessed to killing a Berlin man who answered an advertisement he had posted on the Internet seeking a fit man “for slaughter.”
The case of sexually- inspired cannibalism is so extraordinary it is expected to make legal history.