Visit from lawyer

Fritzl before his release: “His eyes were shining”

Josef Fritzl is expected to be transferred from the detention center to a normal cell.

(Bild: Imre Antal)

The whole country knew it before Josef Fritzl himself: One day after it was not legally decided that the 89-year-old would be released from the measure, he now knows it too. There were no leaps of joy, reports his lawyer Astrid Wagner. But only his physical condition prevented him from doing so. Fritzl is overjoyed ...

"I disturbed Mr. Fritzl during his afternoon nap," lawyer Astrid Wagner told the "Krone" about the visit to her client. One day after the decision was not legally binding, Josef Fritzl himself is now also aware of his release from the institution for mentally abnormal offenders to normal prison.

"He heard it rumbling yesterday"
However, the media hype did not go completely unnoticed by the 89-year-old in Stein prison. "He heard it rumbling yesterday. Also from other inmates," said defense lawyer Wagner. She read the page-long decision to him word for word - "His eyes lit up."

His eyes lit up.

Astrid Wagner erzählt vom Besuch bei Josef Fritzl

Bild: Groh Klemens/Klemens Groh

However, Fritzl has not yet fully accepted it, says his lawyer: "He thanked me very much. But that has to sink in first. But we have already discussed that we will tackle the release process." But that will certainly take some time, says Astrid Wagner: "Rome wasn't built in a day either."

Fritzl strives for a life without controls
Josef Fritzl himself expects to be released soon after the decision of the Krems Regional Court, which was positive for him. He has also spoken to his lawyer about this: "His fellow inmates have also told him that the transfer from the measure is the first step to freedom." Her client's ultimate goal was to be able to live independently and without control. After all, he is "no more dangerous than any other Austrian, according to the expert opinion".

That was not the case in 2009, when he was sentenced to life imprisonment and placement in an institution at the St. Pölten regional court for the Amstetten incest case. He held his daughter captive in a cellar dungeon for 24 years and fathered seven children with her - one died at birth. Astrid Wagner emphasizes that the 89-year-old does not want to have contact with his family if he is released from prison. He only dreams of a house in the countryside - which his daughter was denied for so long ...