In 2009, Fritzl was sentenced to life in prison after admitting to charges of incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment, and enslavement in Austria.
He held his daughter Elisabeth captive for 24 years and began sexually assaulting her when she was 11 years old.
Elisabeth bore seven children during her time imprisoned in the basement of their home, all fathered by Fritzl.
Despite the severity of his offenses, Austrian law permits parole eligibility after 15 years of serving a sentence, a point Fritzl, now 89, reached last year.
Reports suggest Fritzl is already setting expectations for his potential release.
Despite his past misuse of a basement for his daughter’s abuse, he has requested housing that includes a basement. Additionally, he desires proximity to a train station as he is now uneasy with driving.
“Every day, he dreams of having his own house or apartment,” his lawyer Astrid Wagner told local media, according to The Express.
The insistence on a cellar is reportedly due to his need for space to store numerous boxes of documents.
Fritzl’s prison cell is reportedly crowded with folders and boxes full of files, which he hopes to keep in a basement.
Following his parole eligibility, Fritzl had a hearing and was initially allowed to move from a special psychiatric unit to a regular prison cell.
This move was approved in January 2024, but was reversed by the Vienna court by March.
“Contrary to the [assessment by the] court of first instance, the Vienna higher provincial court came to the conclusion that the facts necessary for such a conditional release had not yet fully been clarified,” explained the court’s decision to keep him in a psychiatric unit, as reported by The Guardian.
By May 2024, the court again concluded he could be transferred to a regular prison, citing that due to dementia, Fritzl was ‘no longer likely to commit a criminal offence with serious consequences’.
Fritzl is expected to apply for parole in May of this year, a year after being moved to a regular prison setting.
If you’ve been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Alternatively, online chat is available at online.rainn.org.