Krems. He locked his daughter in the basement for 24 years and raped her thousands of times. After 15 years in prison, judges have now decided whether Josef Fritzl will be released on conditions.
Josef Fritzl, who became known as the “Monster of Amstetten,” remains in custody. A panel of three judges at the Krems Regional Court in Austria decided on Thursday that the now 88-year-old would not be released early for preventive reasons, a court spokesman said. However, the prisoner should be transferred from the prison system to the normal prison system under certain conditions. According to the court spokesman, this decision is not yet legally binding. In an initial reaction, Fritzl’s lawyer Astrid Wagner spoke of a “great partial success” and her client was “very touched”.
Fritzl was sentenced to life imprisonment in March 2009. The charges in the trial were murder by omission, rape, deprivation of liberty, aggravated coercion, slavery and incest – he was found guilty on all counts. Since then, the trained electrical engineer has been in prison at the Stein prison near Krems and had to undergo therapy there. According to the court spokesman, the new requirements stipulate that Fritzl must provide evidence of therapeutic treatment every three months, even in normal prison settings.
Daughter locked in soundproof basement
In 1984, in the small Austrian town of Amstetten, Fritzl locked his then 18-year-old daughter in the soundproof cellar of his house. Over the next 24 years he raped her thousands of times and fathered seven children with her. One of them soon died. According to authorities, the wife, who lived on the first floor of the house with the rest of the family, was unaware of any of this. The case broke in 2008 and made headlines around the world. Fritzl took on a new last name in prison.
The reason for Fritzl’s hearing was a new report from forensic psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner, which certified that he was harmless. According to his lawyer, the prisoner suffers from dementia. Fritzl has now spent 15 years in prison, a mandatory requirement for any early release. In court circles it had previously been said that in Austria, on average, a person sentenced to life imprisonment spends around 22 years behind bars.
At the end of the hearing, which lasted about 30 minutes, Wagner said that her client told “how he regrets what he did. So he was actually close to tears.” The lawyer wants to continue fighting for her client’s early release, as she announced.
The crime was exposed on April 26, 2008, when a 19-year-old daughter from the basement became critically ill and was taken to a clinic by Fritzl. A doctor became suspicious and gave the police the crucial tip.
Expert: “He wanted power over a woman”
The talented man had converted the basement of his house in Amstetten into a 60 square meter prison. A total of eight doors with remote control, some of which weighed 500 kilograms, secured the area. “He wanted power over a woman and her availability at all times,” said Kastner, who prepared a report for the process, in an interview with the German Press Agency in 2023.