There was a recent court order to transfer Joseph Frizzle from the psychiatric unit where he is being held to a regular prison.
Fritzl, who has now changed his name, which has not been made public, raped his daughter, who he held captive for 24 years in the basement of their home in Austria, and fathered seven children born of the rapes.
The 89-year-old is serving a life sentence in a prison for “mentally disturbed” inmates after being convicted in 2009 of incest, rape, slavery, coercion and the manslaughter of his newborn son in the underground prison he had secretly built beneath the his house.
His daughter, now 58-year-old Elizabeth Frizzle, and her children, live in an unknown location, with a new name, in an attempt to rebuild their lives.
While his transfer could, in principle, pave the way for his conditional release from prison, the court said such a request was unlikely to be granted due to “special precautionary reasons”.
Frizzle’s lawyer, Astrid Wagner, called it a “great success”. His transfer could take place within two weeks, while, according to her, a new appeal by the prosecution is unlikely. Wagner told AFP that she would then apply for parole so that Yosef Fritzl could be released from prison next year.
“He no longer poses a threat necessitating his detention in a forensic treatment center,” the court said, using a more recent term for the facility where he is being held. He cited his advanced dementia and fragile state of health as reasons.
“In the same decision, the three-judge court also ruled that a conditional release from regular custody, i.e. being set free, is not possible for special preventive reasons,” according to the statement.
Consequently, he should not be expected to be released, according to the court announcement.
According to newsit, a court in the city of Krems an der Donau, near Vienna, ordered his transfer in January. However, a higher court overturned that decision in March, ruling that “the facts necessary for such a conditional release have not been fully established.” He remanded the case to the lower court, asking it to form a more complete picture of whether Fritzl is eligible for transfer.
The lower court held a hearing last month inside the penitentiary where Frizzle is being held. Prosecutors can again appeal the decision to transfer him to a regular prison in an attempt to overturn it, as they did with the court’s first decision.
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