JAKARTA -- A man who confessed to eating parts of the corpse of an elderly woman was sentenced to five years in prison by an Indonesian court Friday.

Sumanto, 31, calmly accepted the verdict but asked to appeal because he thought the sentence too severe, chief judge Sumardijatmo told AFP from the Central Java town of Purbalingga.

Prosecutors had asked for a six-year jail term.

The court found Sumanto, who was dubbed by newspapers the Hannibal Lecter of Indonesia, guilty of stealing the corpse and eating the flesh.

Sumanto was arrested in January after villagers found in his hut the remains of the corpse which was snatched from its grave a few hours after burial.

Sumanto, an odd-job man, later said he believed eating the flesh would bring him prosperity. He was charged under a criminal code provision related to theft.