In Austria, Josef Fritzl, who was convicted of a crime of incest, will soon be transferred to a normal prison. His lawyer wants to ensure that the 88-year-old is released into a nursing home.
Apparently he has already been seen in cafes in Krems an der Donau, around the prison where he has been held for just over 15 years. In the so-called enforcement of measures. When he was admitted back then it was still called an “institution for mentally abnormal criminals”. It’s about Josef Fritzl, who has since changed his name.
He was sentenced to life in prison for locking his daughter in the basement for 24 years. According to court documents, he raped her at least three thousand times and fathered seven children with her.
Crimes remained undetected for years
When he was exposed because one of the seven children died shortly after birth, Austria was shocked. Not only because of the monstrous act, but also because Fritzl had remained undetected for so long.
This is also why every movement in the Fritzl case is now being closely monitored. This is also why there is speculation: will he perhaps be released early? Just because someone thinks they saw a severely demented, soon-to-be 89-year-old with a walker and accompanied by judicial officers in the café?
The answer today is also: No, Fritzl will not be released early. Although his lawyer Astrid Wagner has been working towards this for months. “He has a right to be treated accordingly. And in my opinion that is only possible in a nursing home and not in a prison,” she says.
The expert certifies severe dementia
A nursing home would mean relative freedom. There is an intermediate stage – and it has probably been reached. Fritzl’s lawyer sees the release from the “execution of measures”, i.e. from the closed psychiatric ward into the normal penal system, as a “partial success”: This is what a panel of three judges has now decided. The decision can still be appealed.
The basis is a new report from the respected Austrian psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner, who had previously assessed Fritzl. She notes that Fritzl is now severely demented. The attested “sharp mind” that had previously made him so dangerous, according to the report, was over. This means that all therapies in closed psychiatry are no longer of any use. So he is released into the normal prison system.
The convicted man is said to have shown remorse
For Fritzl’s lawyer, however, the question arises: Why not just discharge her into a nursing home? Court expert Patrick Frottier says this would be legally possible. If the dementia no longer poses a danger, Fritzl could also be released from normal prison.
Fritzl would no longer be dangerous, and he apparently sincerely regrets it, says his lawyer. He also emphasized this again before the court senate. He is “very touched” that he will probably soon be allowed to go to normal prison, with easier conditions.
The court has still refused to take the next step, into a nursing home. If it comes to that, forensic psychiatrist Reinhard Haller sees another challenge: finding a nursing home that will take Fritzl in.
Wolfgang Vichtl, ARD Vienna, tagesschau, January 25, 2024 1:39 p.m