Fritzl jailed for life in Austria incest case

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Fritzl jailed for life in Austria incest case
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 20, 2009 00:00

ST. POELTEN - Josef Fritzl was convicted of homicide, enslavement, incest, rape and other charges yesterday and sentenced to life in a psychiatric prison for holding his daughter captive for 24 years and fathering her seven children.

Fritzl, 73, sat calmly and bowed his head as the verdicts by the Austrian jury were read. He later told the court he accepted the outcome and waived his right to appeal - bringing a dramatic end to a shocking case that has drawn worldwide attention.

Court spokesman Franz Cutka said Fritzl would be taken to a secure psychiatric ward for mentally deranged criminals.

Maximum punishment
The homicide count - "murder by neglect" in German - was the most serious of the charges against 73-year-old Fritzl, and the jury gave him the maximum punishment allowed by law. Officials said Fritzl would not be eligible for parole for at least 15 years, and psychiatric experts would have to concur with any decision to free him.

The other charges included incest, false imprisonment and coercion. Fritzl had changed his stance and pleaded guilty Wednesday to all counts against him after he and the court viewed 11 hours of emotional videotaped testimony by his daughter, Elisabeth, whom he locked in a dungeon when she was 18.

"I regret it with all my heart ... I can't make it right anymore," Fritzl told the court yesterday, hours before the verdicts were announced.

In a surprise move, Elisabeth appeared in the court as it viewed her testimony. Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said Fritzl decided to stop contesting the homicide and enslavement counts after seeing that heart-wrenching videotape.

Prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser had called for the maximum punishment in her closing arguments in Fritzl's trial in St. Poelten, west of Vienna. She urged the jury to think about his daughter's nearly quarter-century ordeal as it considered how much time he should serve.

Elisabeth, now 42, and her six surviving children, who range in age from 6 to 20, have spent months recovering in a psychiatric clinic and at a secret location. Prosecutors described her as a "broken" woman after enduring multiple rapes - some in front of her children.
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