Josef Fritzl set to be released from prison as soon as tomorrow
Josef Fritzl could be released from prison just in time for his 90th birthday tomorrow.
The depraved rapist fathered seven children by his daughter Elisabeth Fritzl while holding her captive as a sex slave in a dungeon he built under his home in Amstetten, Austria, for 24 years.
His crimes came to light in 2008 and he has been serving a life sentence in a prison unit for ‘mentally abnormal’ inmates since his conviction a year later.
Fritzl’s lawyer, Astrid Wagner, is demanding that he is released from prison on his 90th birthday.
But he won’t live completely free because he will be transferred to a dementia centre, according to Blick.
The 89-year-old’s dementia is reportedly getting worse at an ever-increasing rate.
Ms Wagner said: ‘He needs special therapy. He wants to experience being released from prison.’
For Fritzl to be released from prison, he would have to be transferred to a local court and an expert will also have to assess his mental state.
In January last year, a regional court ruled Fritzl no longer posed a threat to society and gave the green light for him to be transferred from a high-security prison to a regular jail.
The transfer was seen as paving the way for his conditional release from prison altogether – something the three-judge panel said was unlikely for the foreseeable future.
He also believes that people will be ‘celebrating’ and queuing up to shake his hand if he is successful in his bid for freedom.
Speaking to The Mirror, Ms Wagner previously said: ‘He believes that when he is released, he will come out to a big celebration with people cheering and music and wanting to shake his hand.
‘This is obviously not the case. It is a fantasy. I don’t think he fully understands what the world really thinks.’
Ms Wagner said Fritzl wants to move back to where he previously lived but added: ‘He would need a carer and none of his friends or family want to know.’
Fritzl imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth in the basement of the family home when she was 18.
Three of the seven children he fathered with his daughter lived with her until they were freed in 2008.
Fritzl and his wife fostered the other three surviving children after he claimed Elisabeth had given birth to them and then abandoned them to join a religious sect.
He burnt the remains of the seventh child, who died shortly after birth, in the house furnace.
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