German court rejects confessed cannibal's appeal

A German federal court has rejected a murder conviction appeal by a man who admitted killing and eating an acquaintance he met on the internet.

Armin Meiwes, a computer technician, was sentenced to life in prison for murder last May following his retrial in a case that fascinated and appalled Germany.

In his appeal to the Federal Court of Justice in Berlin, Meiwes argued the death of Bernd Juergen Brandes should be classified as a mercy killing.

The court “rejected the appeal ... as clearly unfounded,” according to a statement.

It noted that Meiwes’ life sentence means that he can be released after 15 years at the earliest – “and then only if he is no longer dangerous”.

Meiwes has said Mr Brandes – who had travelled from Berlin in 2001 after answering his internet posting under the pseudonym “Franky” seeking a young man for “slaughter and consumption” – wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness.

Meiwes captured the killing on video.