Austrian media: – Josef Fritzl (89) has packed his bags

In January this year, Josef Fritzl’s lawyer, Astrid Wagner, applied for parole for her life-sentenced client.

In 2009, Fritzl was sentenced to life for abusing his own daughter thousands of times over 24 years, while he kept her locked up in the basement for just as long. Her daughter, Elisabeth Fritzl, gave birth to seven children in captivity during the two decades.

Fritzl defender shocks

Fritzl, who turned 89 in April, has since the conviction served time in the high-security prison “anstalt Stern” together with other serious criminals with mental disorders.

He will now suffer from progressive dementia and is dependent on a walker.

– He is no longer a danger to society. He is no longer considered capable of posing any threat to his former or potential victims, Wagner claimed to Het Niewsblad in January.

Expect immediate release

On Tuesday this week, the court in Krems will make a decision on whether Fritzl should be released on probation or not. If the application is granted, the 89-year-old can in theory be released within the year.

According to Austrian media, it may appear that the 89-year-old has great faith in a decision in his favour. Newspaper Kronen Zeitung writes that Fritzl has already prepared two suitcases with clothes and belongings, and will thus be packed and ready for what he himself expects will be an “immediate release” on Tuesday, it says.

Tuesday’s hearing in Krems will take place behind closed doors. Three judges will assess the demand for conditional release, writes the newspaper.

In February, the court in Krems ruled that Fritzl could be transferred from the high-security prison “anstalt Stern” to a regular prison. However, this ruling was appealed, and the court in Vienna decided in March that Fritzl must remain where he is, the Austrian news agency APA reported.

When Fritzl’s mental state was assessed by a forensic psychiatrist shortly after his arrest in 2009, he was described as “extremely psychologically abnormal” and “emotionally illiterate”.

– Not in the mood for sex

In the most recent report, however, it will be stated that he is no longer dangerous. According to lawyer Astrid Wagner, Fritzl should no longer have any sexual desire.

– I wouldn’t be afraid to move into a shared flat with him, or to live with him in a care home. He no longer has the desire for sex, said Wagner, who himself is making headlines both at home and abroad.

In April, Wagner shared scantily clad photos of herself, snapped on a hike in the scenic Puchberg am Schneeberg in the state of Lower Austria.

The lawyer posed topless among green meadows and white mountain peaks. She then shared the photos on her own Facebook and Instagram profile.

Among the six photos shared from the hike, one of them showed the defense attorney’s bare back, leaning against a barbed wire with her butt sticking out.

In another, shot from the side, Wagner drank water from a well with a flower emoji placed on her chest to hide her nipple.

“My existence is a provocation”

According to the German newspaper Bild, Wagner himself left a comment in his own comment field.

“Honestly, I really don’t want to provoke anyone. Apparently my very existence is a provocation to some.”

Now the monster wants out

The case blew up in the media, and according to the daily newspaper OE24, it is not the first time Wagner has attracted attention:

“Jack Unterweger’s ex-lover and the lawyer of the incest perpetrator Josef Fritzl, who was sentenced to life in March 2009, appears topless on Facebook – again. Also in 2015, 2017 and 2020, she attracted attention with revealing photos,” the newspaper wrote in April.

– He deeply regretted it

Jack Unterweger was an Austrian serial killer who wreaked havoc across national borders. He took his own life in prison in 1994, aged 43, after being found guilty of nine murders that same year. He took a total of ten lives between 1974 and 1992.

Astrid Wagner has previously spoken about the relationship with the serial killer in the magazine Profil.