German computer expert faces cannibalism charge
AP
03 December 2003
A computer expert accused of killing, dismembering and eating the flesh of another man, who agreed to the arrangement over the internet, went on trial for murder today in a German court.
Prosecutors in Kassel accuse Armin Meiwes of killing a 43-year-old from Berlin, identified only as Bernd Juergen B., in March 2001, by stabbing him in the throat at his home in Rotenburg.
Prosecutors say the killing was carried out with the victim's consent. But they classified it as murder, not - as the defence argues would be appropriate - a form of mercy killing, arguing that the evidence indicated it was carried out at the suspect's initiative.
Meiwes, aged 42, who has confessed to the killing, could face a life prison sentence if convicted of murder. Prosecutors say the killing was sexually motivated.
Dressed in a dark suit, he appeared relaxed as he sat down next to his lawyer at the Kassel state court.
He allegedly chopped the body into pieces, deep-froze parts of it and buried the rest, capturing the crime on a videotape which is being used as evidence. Police who searched his home found human flesh and bones.
Police tracked down and arrested the suspect in December last year after a student in Austria alerted them to an advertisement he had placed on the Internet seeking a man willing to be killed and eaten.
A verdict from the court, which is scheduled to hear 38 witnesses, is expected in February.
Is it murder??????
AP
03 December 2003
A computer expert accused of killing, dismembering and eating the flesh of another man, who agreed to the arrangement over the internet, went on trial for murder today in a German court.
Prosecutors in Kassel accuse Armin Meiwes of killing a 43-year-old from Berlin, identified only as Bernd Juergen B., in March 2001, by stabbing him in the throat at his home in Rotenburg.
Prosecutors say the killing was carried out with the victim's consent. But they classified it as murder, not - as the defence argues would be appropriate - a form of mercy killing, arguing that the evidence indicated it was carried out at the suspect's initiative.
Meiwes, aged 42, who has confessed to the killing, could face a life prison sentence if convicted of murder. Prosecutors say the killing was sexually motivated.
Dressed in a dark suit, he appeared relaxed as he sat down next to his lawyer at the Kassel state court.
He allegedly chopped the body into pieces, deep-froze parts of it and buried the rest, capturing the crime on a videotape which is being used as evidence. Police who searched his home found human flesh and bones.
Police tracked down and arrested the suspect in December last year after a student in Austria alerted them to an advertisement he had placed on the Internet seeking a man willing to be killed and eaten.
A verdict from the court, which is scheduled to hear 38 witnesses, is expected in February.
Is it murder??????
