Josef Fritzl can be released to regular prison, court rules – in move that paves way for nursing home transfer
Josef Fritzl – who kept his daughter captive for 24 years, raped her thousands of times, and fathered seven children with her – can be moved to a regular prison, a court has ruled.
The 88-year-old Austrian – who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009 for crimes including incest, rape, and enslavement – has been in psychiatric detention in a high-security unit at Stein prison.
However, a three-judge regional court in northern Austria, ruled on Thursday that Fritzl, who now has dementia, can be moved to a regular prison as he no longer poses a danger.
The ruling, which paves the way for him to be released from prison into a nursing home, overturned an earlier decision from 2022 when his request to be moved to a regular prison was rejected.
Josef Fritzl is escorted back to a prison after his hearing. Pic: AFP/Getty
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Who is Josef Fritzl?
According to the Austria Press Agency (APA), Fritzl will have to attend regular psychotherapy and undergo psychiatric evaluations during a 10-year probation period at the prison.
The verdict is not yet legally binding and prosecutors have 14 days to submit an appeal, APA reported.
Fritzl’s lawyer, Astrid Wagner, told The Associated Press: “In summary, the court has come to the conclusion that it is indeed the case that he is no longer dangerous.”
Ms Wagner said she planned to submit such a request next year for Fritzl to be released from prison altogether.
‘Monster of Amstetten’
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.
The house in Amstetten, Austria – where Fritzl kept his daughter captive for 24 years. Pic: Reuters
Over the next 24 years, he repeatedly raped her and fathered seven children with her, one of whom died.
He claimed she had run off to join a cult, while 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.
Dungeon-like basement chamber
Fritzl had already been sexually abusing his daughter since she was 11.
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His crimes were revealed after his daughter re-emerged from the dungeon-like basement chamber in 2008 when one of his children with her became critically ill.
After Fritzl took the child to the hospital, police issued an appeal for the mother of the child to come forward.
The house where Josef Fritzl kept his daughter locked in a cellar. Pic: AP
Fritzl thought family would forgive him
Fritzl released his daughter from the cellar and the police were alerted to her reappearance, and she told them she had been held captive for more than two decades.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009 for incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment, enslavement, and the negligent homicide of one of his infant sons.
In 2023, Fritzl claimed in an interview that he thought his family would “forgive” him for his crimes and he would be “reunited” with them.
Fritzl’s daughter and her children have since taken on new identities.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
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