Court to review sentence of German cannibal

Germany’s highest court is expected to rule today on a prosecution request to increase a sentence to life in prison for a man convicted of killing and eating another man.

The Federal Constitutional Court is considering the case of Armin Meiwes, who was convicted in January 2004 of killing and eating Bernd Juergen Brandes.

A trial judge sentenced Meiwes to eight and a half years in prison after he confessed to the crimes.

Prosecutors said Meiwes killed to “satisfy a sexual impulse”.

But Meiwes argued the victim volunteered to be killed and eaten, so the case should be classified a mercy killing, which carries a maximum five-year penalty.

Brandes travelled from Berlin to Meiwes’ home near the central German city of Kassel in reply to an internet advertisement seeking a young man for “slaughter and consumption”.

Meiwes testified Brandes wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness.

Meiwes told the trial he regretted the killing, but Brandes “came to me of his free will to end his life”.