The court rejected the prosecution’s argument that the 42-year-old defendant murdered Brandes for “sexual gratification.” The victim, Bernd Brandes, consented to be killed and cannibalized in March 2001. The verdict against Armin Meiwes underscored the legal complexity that unfolded during the two-month trial in the town of Kassel.
Judges upheld his claim that the movie - titled "Rohtenburg," in an echo of his hometown's name - detailed events in his private life and infringed his personal rights.In a case that has tested Germany’s legal system and horrified the public, a computer technician was found guilty of manslaughter Friday and sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison for killing and eating a man he met in an Internet chat room. Meiwes has scored one legal victory, securing a ban by another court on the screening of a film that was inspired by his case. In early 2004, a court in the city of Kassel convicted Meiwes of manslaughter and sentenced him to 8½ years in prison, but prosecutors appealed the verdict.įederal 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.
Police tracked down and arrested Meiwes in December 2002 after a student in Austria alerted them to a message Meiwes had posted on the Internet seeking a man willing to be killed and eaten. He has also said he ate more after the killing. "I wanted to eat him - I didn't want to kill him," he told the court.īefore Brandes was killed, the two attempted to eat parts of the man's body together, Meiwes said. Still, the defendant claimed he had hesitated before going through with the act.
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