Decision to transfer rapist Josef Fritzl to regular prison overturned by Austrian court

Josepf Fritzl, 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.

Monday 11 March 2024 14:11, UK

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The decision to transfer Josef Fritzl - who kept his daughter captive for 24 years and raped her thousands of times - to a regular prison has been overturned by an Austrian court.

The Vienna Higher Regional Court overturned the decision, made in January, to move the 88-year-old to a regular prison.

The initial ruling was made on the basis that Fritzl no longer posed a danger.

It would have also likely paved the way for him to be released from prison into a nursing home.

But on Monday, the higher court ordered the lower court to establish more facts before reaching a new decision on the transfer, which is expected in April.

Read more: Who is Josef Fritzl?

"Unlike the court of first instance, the Vienna Higher Provincial Court came to the conclusion that the necessary facts for a decision on a conditional dismissal have not yet been clarified," the court said in a statement.

The decision over Fritzl's potential transfer to a regular prison has been going back-and-forth in court for a number of years and the case has been examined by the higher court several times before.

Prosecutors filed the latest complaint with the aim of overturning the decision made at the beginning of the year.

Fritzl, who has dementia, was able to follow the brief proceedings in January when his conditional release was ordered, his lawyer Astrid Wagner told reporters after that hearing.

The 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.

He has since changed his name to one that has not been made public.