ARMIN MEIWES, the self-confessed cannibal jailed two years ago for killing and consuming a man who had begged to be eaten, stood trial for the second time yesterday after Germany’s top criminal court ruled that his 8½-year sentence for manslaughter was too lenient.

Markedly thinner than at his first trial, Meiwes, 44, remained silent as prosecutors retold the Frankfurt court how he met a Berlin computer engineer via the internet, cut off his penis at the latter’s request, disembowelled him in a “slaughter room” in his house and ate 44lb (20kg) of his flesh in the following months. Meiwes has confessed to the killing, recorded on more than four hours of video tape, but insists that he was fulfilling the victim’s desire.

In the original trial, 19 minutes of video showing key moments of the crime was shown to the court after reporters and the public were removed. More of the grisly footage is expected to be screened in the retrial.

Meiwes’s lawyers are seeking a conviction of “killing upon request”, a form of euthanasia, which carries a term of six months to five years. Prosecutors accuse him of murder to gratify his sexual desires, which would carry a term of at least 15 years. German courts tend to follow the recommendations of the Federal Criminal Court, which has called for him to face a full murder charge, but they are not obliged to. Meiwes could leave with a reduced sentence or even as a free man.

Harald Ermel, Meiwes’s lawyer, admitted that his client had a “fetish for human flesh” but said: “He is absolutely no danger to society and he never was. He is not someone who sexually abuses and kills small children. He would never do anything against the will of another. Under the same circumstances he would never do something like that again.” Yet he added:

“If he had a suicide case who wanted to be eaten it would be conceivable.”

Meiwes wanted to go into therapy to control his urges but was not able to while in “investigative custody”.

The case has confronted the German legal system with an unprecedented dilemma: whether killing a man who wants to be eaten can constitute murder. It could ultimately go before the constitutional court.

Meiwes, a computer repair man obsessed with cannibalism since puberty, met Bernd-Jürgen Brandes via the internet. Herr Brandes had advertised for someone to “obliterate his life and leave no trace”, said Joachim Bremer, one of Meiwes’s three defence lawyers.

“In e-mails, internet chats and telephone conversations, Herr Brandes had clearly expressed his desire for his life to be ended. He consistently expressed the desire to be emasculated, to pass out and then to be killed and to be consumed.”

Markus Köhler, the chief prosecutor, told how the two men met in 2001 at Meiwes’s rambling house in the central town of Rotenberg, where he lived alone after the death of his domineering mother.

Herr Brandes asked Meiwes to cut off his penis and prepared himself by drinking half a bottle of Schnapps and taking painkillers. Meiwes obliged. “They both tried to eat it. But did not succeed, either raw or fried,” Herr Köhler said.

Herr Brandes had a bath and became unconscious from loss of blood, after which Meiwes laid him out on a bench. “Using an 18cm kitchen knife, he sliced him from the throat to the spine,” said Herr Köhler. With the video camera rolling, Meiwes hung up Herr Brandes from a meat hook and proceeded to disembowel him.

“He slit open his belly with the kitchen knife and took out his internal organs including the heart and lungs,” Herr Köhler said. He then cut off the head and sliced the body in two, hanging up both halves. He subsequently cut the body into little pieces, froze them and ate them in normal dishes.

The prosecution argues that Meiwes should have known that Herr Brandes was deeply disturbed. He had had doubts and returned to Kassel railway station, but on the way, Meiwes had tried to change his mind, Herr Köhler said. Meiwes must have been aware “that Herr Brandes’s yearning for self- destruction resulted from a severe disturbance of the soul”.

People who have interviewed Meiwes, who will make a statement in court on Monday, have described him as being of above-average intelligence, well-spoken and polite. Psychiatrists say that he is sane but deeply disturbed.

His original sentence was widely criticised, with many believing that it was too lenient.

DEATH BY REQUEST? A CASE HISTORY

March 2001 Bernd-Jürgen Brandes responds to internet advert by Armin Meiwes seeking well-built male ready to be killed and eaten

March 9, 2001 Meiwes meets Herr Brandes. Drives him to farm in Rotenburg. Removes his penis, which they both eat. Meiwes films himself stabbing Brandes and disembowelling him

Following days Meiwes eats parts of the corpse. Freezes the rest to eat later

December 2002 Meiwes arrested after internet surfers report his adverts

July 2003 Meiwes charged with murder

December 2003 Trial starts in Kassel. Court told that Meiwes sought more willing victims after Herr Brandes

January 2004 Meiwes convicted of manslaughter. Jailed for 8½ years. Prosecution wanted 15 years for sexual murder

February 2004 Prosecutors appeal

April 2005 Conviction overturned; retrial ordered

January 12, 2006 Retrial begins in Frankfurt