德國警官涉嫌殺人食人被捕

Authorities in Germany's eastern city of Dresden announced on Friday that they had arrested a 55-year-old police officer suspected of murdering an allegedly willing victim and then burying his remains in small pieces in the garden of the police officer's guest apartment.

Dresden's police chief, Dieter Kroll, told reporters at a news conference that the suspected officer had confessed to having slashed the throat of his victim, a 59-year-old man from Hannover, who had traveled to Dresden, which is capital of the regional state of Saxony.

Kroll said there was, however, no evidence that the suspect, an investigative police officer from Saxony, had actually eaten any of his victim's body parts.

The killing had taken place on November 4.

The pair had met at Dresden railway station and then driven to the suspect's vacant rental apartment in the town of Hartmannsdorf-Reichenau, in the Harz Mountain region, where the killing took place.

Traced via electronic traffic

Kroll said investigators made the grisly discovery during the course of a search for the victim, who had been reported missing by a colleague on November 11.

Data from the dead man's electronic communications eventually led police to the suspect, who in turn led them to the body parts.

The police chief also said it appeared that the suspect had complied with the victim's wish to be killed.

"The victim had been fantasising about being killed and eaten by someone else since his youth," Kroll told reporters.

Meeting via web site

Police said that while the suspect, who is being held in investigative custody, had confessed to the killing, he had denied intending to eat his victim, even though the two had met on a web site catering to people with cannibalistic fantasies.

Dresden head of criminal investigations Maik Mainda told the press conference that until their web encounter the suspect and victim had "not known each other personally."

"The agreement was that the killing should take place immediately," Mainda said.

Previous high-profile case

International media focused some years ago on a German cannibal Armin Meiwes. On trial, he admitted to killing, mutilating and eating the flesh of a man he had met on the internet.

In 2004, a German court convicted Meiwes of manslaughter and sentenced him to eight and half years in prison.

Prosecutors though appealed the sentence, leading to a retrial, in which he was convicted of murder and handed a life sentence in 2006. Meiwes' appeal of that sentence was denied.據德國之聲網站報道，德國德累斯頓市警方11月29日宣佈，他們逮捕了一名涉嫌殺人食人的警官。據稱，他殺死一名自願赴死的男性，然後將其尸解並埋在花園裏。此案正在調查當中。

警方透露，55歲的嫌疑人通過一個食人癖網站結識59歲的受害人，同意後者的請求，將其殺死。11月4日，兩人在德累斯頓火車站會面，然後驅車前往位於哈爾茨山區的嫌疑人出租公寓，實施殺戮。在此之前，他們並無私交。

11月11日，受害人的同事報告他失蹤，調查人員分析他的通信記錄，順藤摸瓜找到涉嫌殺人的警察，最終找到已被肢解的屍體。嫌疑人承認殺了人，但是否認打算吃掉他。

德累斯頓市警察局長迪特爾•克羅爾在新聞發佈會上說，嫌疑人似乎是遵照受害人的意願將其殺死。“受害人年輕時就曾經幻想被人謀殺，並被吃掉。”他說，嫌疑人承認砍了受害人的脖子，但是沒有證據顯示，這位警官真的吃了受害人身體的任何部位。

涉嫌吃人的案件曾有先例。德國食人者阿明•邁韋斯曾接受審判，承認殺人食肉。邁韋斯過失殺人罪名2004年成立，被判入獄8年半；此案2006年提起重申，法官裁定邁韋斯謀殺，處以無期徒刑。