Cannibal relaxed at start of re-trial in Germany

12 January 2006

FRANKFURT – Armin Meiwes, 44, the self-confessed cannibal who killed and ate a man five years ago in Germany, was relaxed and joked with his lawyers at the start of his re-trial Thursday.

Meiwes has already received an eight-and-a-half-year prison term for manslaughter, but an appeal court has directed a fresh trial to consider whether the conviction should be upgraded to murder and life imprisonment.

Meiwes, who worked with computers after serving as an officer with the army catering corps, says the victim, whom he met online, was willing to be slaughtered. A video film of the act in Meiwes’ manor house at Rotenburg, central Germany is to be shown in court.

The first day of the re-trial in Frankfurt was taken up with a reading aloud of the indictment, with legal discussion of the federal high court ruling and testimony from Meiwes to follow.

DPA

Subject: German news