Austrian Josef Fritzl, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for kidnapping and raping his daughter for 24 years, was granted the right on Thursday to leave the high-security unit where he is being held, according to a court decision issued on Thursday.
His lawyer Astrid Wagner told the press after a closed hearing in the town of Krems, 80 kilometers northwest of Vienna, where he ruled that “the court concluded that he no longer poses a danger” after 15 years behind bars. Jailed.
She explained that the judges relied on the report of a psychiatry expert, citing her advanced age (88 years) and the onset of dementia.
“This is an important first step. He must now be placed in a traditional detention system and subjected to regular checks,” the lawyer added, adding that her client was “deeply affected.”
Once his transfer takes effect, he will then be able to apply for parole, according to Mr. Wagner, who plans to do so next year.
A court spokesman confirmed this decision, which could still be appealed by the prosecution.
The detainee arrived in a police car that pulled into a garage at the back of the building, and photographers caught a glimpse of his face hidden behind his hands.
The electrician was convicted in March 2009 and arrested a year ago, after one of seven children born from an incestuous relationship with his daughter, Elisabeth Fritzl, was hospitalized.
The latter was kidnapped and raped from 1984 to 2008 in a bunker set up in the basement of the family's property in Amstetten.
During all these years, Josef Fritzl continued to live in the ward with his wife Rosemary, who the judges concluded did not know anything at all, convinced that her daughter had joined a religious cult.
In the small town 100 kilometers from Vienna where the tragedy occurred, the authorities sealed the “cellar of horrors” with cement in 2013, a necessary condition for the house to be put up for sale.
Elisabeth Fritzl is now 56 years old, and she and her children have moved to an undisclosed location, under a new name, in an attempt to rebuild their lives anonymously.
Josef Fritzl, who threatened to gas the entire family if any of them escaped, never expressed any remorse. But according to his lawyer, “he thinks about his actions day and night.”
