Josef Fritzl, Austrian who held daughter captive for twenty-four years, will be moved to common jail, court docket guidelines

Krems, Austria — An Austrian man who had stored his daughter captive for twenty-four years and raped her hundreds of occasions, fathering seven kids together with her, will be moved from psychiatric detention to an everyday jail, a court docket dominated on Thursday. The choice stipulates that Josef Fritzl, 88, must attend common psychotherapy and bear psychiatric evaluations throughout a 10-year probation interval on the jail, Austria Press Company reported.

A request to launch him from detention was rejected however the resolution continues to be a win for Fritzl’s authorized workforce as situations in an everyday jail are thought-about an enchancment in comparison with strict controls in a psychiatric establishment.

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 murder of considered one of his toddler sons.

Fritzl turned often known as the “monster of Amstetten” after the northern Austrian city the place he in 1984 locked up his then 18-year-old daughter in a sound-proofed basement of his home. Over the following 24 years, he repeatedly raped her and fathered seven kids together with her, considered one of whom died.

Fritzl’s spouse, who lived on the second ground of the house with the remainder of the household, was allegedly unaware of what was happening within the basement, in line with 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 got here to mild, it made headlines world wide.

A 3-judge regional court docket within the city of Krems dominated on Thursday that Fritzl, who now reportedly has dementia, might be moved to an everyday jail primarily based on a psychiatric evaluation that he not poses a hazard. The ruling overturned an earlier resolution from 2022 when Fritzl’s request to be moved to an everyday jail was rejected.

“In abstract, the court docket has come to the conclusion that it’s certainly the case that he’s not harmful,” Fritzl’s lawyer Astrid Wagner informed The Related Press.

She informed APA that she would proceed to work for Fritzl’s launch.

“He was near tears in the course of the listening to,” Wagner stated. “He stated he’s unbelievably sorry for his victims, he would like to undo every thing he did.”

The decision is just not but legally binding and prosecutors have 14 days to lodge an enchantment, APA reported.