Japanese cannibal who walked free dies age 73

Issei Sagawa smiling and gesturing as he meets with an AFP journalist at his apartment in Yokohama. - AFP

TOKYO (AFP): Issei Sagawa, a Japanese murderer known as the 'Kobe Cannibal' who killed and ate a Dutch student but was never jailed, has died aged 73.

Sagawa died of pneumonia on Nov 24 and was given a funeral attended only by relatives, with no public ceremony planned, his younger brother and a friend said in a statement.