Frankfurt: The retrial of a self-confessed cannibal began in Germany on Thursday as prosecutors sought a murder conviction for the man who killed and ate an apparently willing victim he met on the Internet.
In a lurid case that shocked the country, Armin Meiwes is being retried after a federal judge threw out a January 2004 manslaughter conviction on the grounds it was too lenient, despite the victim's purported "death wish".
Cannibalism in itself is not outlawed in Germany but if it can be proven Meiwes killed to fulfill sexual desire or in order to commit another crime, in this case "disturbing the peace of the dead", he could face life in prison.
Meiwes, wearing a dark suit and a black dress shirt, was led into the courtroom wearing handcuffs and carrying a thick binder.
He greeted his three-member legal team with a broad smile and handshakes, then listened impassively as state prosecutor Marcus Koehler made his opening statement.
"The defendant stands accused of murder for sexual gratification," Koehler told the three-judge panel before describing the grisly events of a night in March 2001, which Meiwes captured on videotape.
A 43-year-old Berlin engineer, Bernd Juergen Brandes, met Meiwes after replying to an Internet advertisement for "young, well-built men aged 18 to 30 for slaughter". He was one of more than 200 volunteers.
Brandes, who had a will, bought a one-way rail ticket to Meiwes's storybook hometown of Rotenburg, where his host picked him up at the station and took him to his rambling half-timbered farmhouse.
The two men had sex and after Brandes downed sleeping pills and whiskey, Meiwes cut off the man's penis, which they planned to eat together but found it was inedible "even when fried".
After a while, Brandes became unconscious. "Driven by sexual lust, he laid him on a bench to be slaughtered," Koehler said.
Meiwes, now 44, stabbed Brandes and hung his body from a hook on the ceiling of his kitchen.
He dissected the corpse, slicing off 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of flesh, which he stored in a freezer. He later ate two-thirds of it, often with accompaniments such as pepper sauce or a wine sauce and potatoes.
The case did not come to light until an Austrian student spotted another Internet advertisement by Meiwes seeking new victims and alerted the police. The computer service technician was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.
Meiwes, who could take the stand as early as Thursday afternoon, told the court during his first trial that he saw the encounter as the fulfillment of a shared fantasy.
"I saw the killing as helping him, helping him to die, helping him to kill himself," he said.
"That is a taboo for which I must justify myself before God and the whole world."
Meiwes's case has blown the lid open on a underground scene of sex and extreme sado-masochism that the defendant told investigators is thriving.
The so-called "cannibal of Rotenburg" had 16 computers and 2,000 disks full of information about the secret world.
State prosecutors have argued that it is crucial the German justice system ensure that a "highly dangerous defendant" is not eligible for release as early as 2008.
A verdict is expected in March. Ahead of the trial, Meiwes filed requests with US and German courts for an injunction to block the release of a US feature film he claims is based on his case, saying the movie could prejudice his retrial.
Meiwes is reportedly working with a television production company on a documentary about his life.
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