A man in Austria was arrested last year because it turned out that he had held his daughter captive for 24 years. Josef Fritzl’s trial, that seems to be one of the biggest cases in recent Austrian judicial history, started today and is expected to end on Friday.
The charges against the 73-year old father are the followings: rape, incest, coercion, enslavement, deprivation of liberty and murder. According to the lawyers Mr Fritzl can be accused of murder as he neglected to look after the child of his daughter and as a result of that the boy died soon after birth. Mr Fritzl was captured because one of his children had become seriously ill and had been taken to hospital last year. Obviously, questions were asked about how he had treated his child and the police decided to search the family’s home where the daughter was found.
Dozens of journalists were rallying in front of the court building just before the start of the trial. 100 could get inside but the judge ordered them to leave as the trial started. The reason for the decision is that in order to respect the family all the evidence will be given behind closed doors therefore neither the press nor the public can be present in the court room during the trial.
Mr Fritzl could face life sentence if found guilty. When he entered the courtroom he hid his face behind a blue file. A recorded testimony of the daughter will be in the centre of the case as it represents a very significant – if not the most significant – piece of evidence.
No comments:
Post a Comment