An Austrian man, Josef Fritzl, 889, who had kept his daughter captive for 24 years and raped her thousands of times, fathering seven children with her, can be moved from psychiatric detention to a regular prison, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Speaking after a hearing at the Stein prison in Krems, Astrid Wagner told reporters that Fritzl presented “no danger” anymore and would probably be moved to a regular prison in the near future.
"The psychiatric expert presented her report and altogether stuck to her initial findings according to which Mr. Fritzl presents no danger anymore – no danger that would make it necessary to keep him in prison. And from that, you can only deduct that now Mr Fritzl will be moved from high-security prison to regular prison. The formal decision has yet to be delivered, but will probably arrive in the coming days," said the lawyer.
The official verdict of the judges will be delivered later in writing. Wagner confirmed that she is still hopeful her client will eventually be released from prison altogether.
The 89-year-old Fritzl is hoping to live out his remaining days in a nursing home or under a similar arrangement. “I have to add that based on the report of the expert it is possible that he might be released from prison altogether – for several reasons which I don’t want to discuss in detail today. But I’m pretty optimistic that he will be released in the future, so he won’t be in prison anymore but maybe in a nursing home," she added.
Who is Josef Fritzl?
Fritzl became known as the “monster of Amstetten” after the northern Austrian town where he locked up his then-18-year-old daughter in a sound-proofed basement of his house in 1984. Over the next 24 years, he repeatedly raped her and fathered seven children with her, one of whom died. His atrocious crime was revealed in 2008 and he was sentenced in 2009 to life imprisonment for committing incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment, enslavement and negligent homicide of one of his infant sons.
Fritzl’s wife, who lived on the second floor of the home with the rest of the family, was allegedly unaware of what was going on in the basement, according to Austrian authorities. Fritzl’s daughter disappeared in 1984 at age 18, re-emerging in 2008 from the dungeon-like basement chamber in Amstetten. When the case came to light, it made headlines around the world.
(With inputs from agency)
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