'Kick of a lifetime' for Meiwes

2004-01-27 18:44

Germany - The most macabre case in recent German jurisprudence comes to an end on Friday, with legal experts unable to predict whether self-confessed cannibal Armin Meiwes will be locked away forever - or will walk away a free man.

In a bizarre twist to what has been a bizarre story from the start, both the prosecution and the defence are arguing that the amiable, good-looking 42-year-old defendant is completely sane.

The prosecution, seeking life imprisonment, insists he is guilty of the cold-blooded and premeditated murder of a Berlin computer systems expert, Bernd Juergen Brandes, in March 2001.

The defence, seeking acquittal or at most five years in prison with parole, insists he is guilty of nothing more than "assisted suicide" because Brandes was a masochist with a castration and mutilation fetish.

Either way, Meiwes is unlikely to be committed to a mental institution - much to the bewilderment of the general public in Germany, who have been following this case with a mixture of disgust and morbid fascination.

Meiwes himself said in a final statement to the court this week that he feels regret but no real remorse. He regrets having been caught. He feels no remorse for what he did.

"I took his life, and I readily admit that," the tight-lipped man with hazel eyes, receding brown hair and square jaw-line told the court matter-of-factly.

"But I want the court to understand that I did nothing that ran contrary to his express wishes," he said of the 39-year-old man he met via a gay Internet chat room in early 2001. Meiwes was looking for someone to "gobble up". Brandes was looking for someone to carve him up.

He wanted it so badly

"He wanted it so badly, it was his heart's desire," Meiwes said of Brandes' death wish.

But - without the slightest apparent trace of remorse - he told the court, "I've had the kick of a lifetime. You don't need to worry that I'll ever need to do this again."

Bolstering his argument was expert testimony from a psychiatrist who testified that Meiwes, while criminally perverted, is legally sane.

Dr Georg Stolpmann said Meiwes suffered from a serious psychological abnormality, but he was responsible for his actions in the legal sense of sanity.

Meiwes was acutely aware of the legal ramifications of his actions, which is why he placed such importance on getting his victim's willing consent. Thus, his mental competency is not in question."

Stolpmann said the defendant had subsequently written to an acquaintance: "It is an incredible feeling to have ultimate power over another man and to slice him up into serving portions."

"For Meiwes, the goal of all this was what he called 'to get the biggest kick of my life', as he has said repeatedly," Stolpmann said. "He wanted absolute power over another person and was planning from the start to commit other such crimes." - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA