A Vienna court has overturned the decision to transfer Josef Fritzl from a special psychiatric ward to a regular prison and ordered the case to be sent back to a lower court.
Fritzl, 88, repeatedly raped his daughter, kept her in his basement for more than 24 years, and fathered her seven children.
In 2009, he was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his daughter, Elizabeth, by leaving her in his arms in a specially constructed basement.
Fritzl was also convicted of incest, seclusion, serious assault, and 3,000 counts of rape.
In late January, the Krems District Court approved his request to be transferred to a regular prison, the first step toward eventually seeking release, but prosecutors appealed the decision.
“In contrast, [assessment by the] “At the first instance, the Vienna Higher Regional Court came to the conclusion that the facts necessary for such a conditional release have not yet been fully established,” the Vienna court said.
The court asked the Krems lower court to take more evidence before reruling Fritzl’s request to be transferred to a regular prison.
A new court hearing in Krems is scheduled for the end of April, Fritzl’s lawyer Astrid Wagner said.
Wagner said further medical examinations, including brain scans, would be carried out in the coming weeks and criticized prosecutors for “unnecessarily delaying the process.”
Fritzl is being held in a prison for mentally ill people who pose a high risk in Krems, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Vienna.
