Self-confessed German cannibal testifies his victim

A self-confessed German cannibal testified Tuesday that he would not have killed his victim had the man not asked to die. In the second day of testimony at his retrial, Armin Meiwes, 44, told a Frankfurt court that he knew murder was a crime. However, he argued that his March 2001 killing of Bernd Juergen Brandes at his home in the central town of Rotenburg should be considered "death on demand." He previously has testified that Brandes answered his Internet ad seeking someone for "slaughter and consumption" and told him that he wanted to "be eaten alive." "Otherwise, I would never have done it," Meiwes told the court. Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter in a Kassel court in early 2004 and sentenced to 8Ѕ years in prison, but prosecutors appealed the verdict in hopes of gaining a tougher sentence.

If convicted of murder in Frankfurt state court, Meiwes could face life in prison. In testimony on Monday, Meiwes said the 43-year-old Brandes wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness, but that he hesitated before going through with the act. "I wanted to eat him, I didn't want to kill him," he told the court.

Meiwes captured the killing on video, which was shown during the first trial. Before Brandes was killed, the two attempted to eat parts of the man's body together. Meiwes, according to previous testimony, ate more after the killing. Asked Tuesday why he left some portions of his victim uneaten, Meiwes said some parts did not appeal to him and that he also feared disease, reports the AP. N.U.