- KASSEL (DPA) -- Prosecutors
Thursday said they have filed a murder indictment against one of two gay
men who met in an Internet chat room, where it allegedly was agreed that
one of them would kill and devour the other.
-
- And in a stunning new development, prosecutors in Kassel
said they are broadening the investigation to include some 430 other persons
believed to have been involved in the Internet gay cannibalism chat room
that led to the death of a 42-year-old man in March 2001.
-
- Prosecutors are convinced that the victim, a computer
analyst from Berlin, agreed to be killed and eaten. His dismembered and
partially devoured remains were found at the residence of a 41-year-old
suspect.
-
- That suspect, identified only as Armin M., has been charged
with murder. Cannibalism per se is not a crime under German law.
-
- Despite the fact that the victim willingly agreed to
be killed, prosecutors said the case could not be considered "assisted
suicide". So they opted for a murder indictment.
-
- Prosecutors Thursday said the suspect has admitted videotaping
himself killing the Berlin man, a computer chip developer at Siemens corporation,
identified only as Bernd Juergen B.
-
- On the morning of his disappearance from Berlin on March
9, 2001, Bernd Juergen B. completed his will. He left the bulk of his estate
including a lavish penthouse apartment and EUR 50,000 worth of computer
equipment to his live-in partner, a man named Rene.
-
- According to police, the victim had several thousand
dollars in cash and his passport when he travelled 300 kilometres from
Berlin to the alleged murderer's house near Kassel.
-
- Searching the rambling, 30-room, half-timbered house
in the village of Rotenburg, investigators unearthed skeletal remains,
some of them packaged in a freezer, along with videotapes and CD-ROMs on
which the suspect allegedly recorded his actions.
-
- Authorities were tipped off to the crime by internet
surfers who stumbled upon chat room requests allegedly posted by the suspect
in which he was looking for people willing to be slaughtered and eaten
by him.
-
- © copyright 2003 Expatica Communications BV
-
- http://www.expatica.com/germany.asp?pad=190,205,&item_id=32865
|
