Tuesday 17 March 2009

Fritzl hears daughter's testimony

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Josef Fritzl is being questioned over taped testimony from his daughter at his trial in Austria for crimes against the children he kept in a cellar.
The court began viewing 11 hours of video on the opening day of the trial, with the rest of the material to be shown in segments during the week.
Austria is holding one of its most harrowing trials behind closed doors.
Mr Fritzl, 73, pleads guilty to incest and "partially" guilty to rape but not guilty to murder or enslavement.
Addressing media at the end of the first day of proceedings in the town of St Poelten, the court spokesman said the trial would resume at 0900 on Tuesday (0800 GMT).
Mr Fritzl is alleged in 1984 to have lured his daughter into a cellar with windowless soundproofed chambers beneath their house, to have imprisoned her there and raped her repeatedly over a number of years.
The daughter and three of her seven children fathered by Fritzl were kept captive in the cellar until the case came to light in April last year when one of the children became seriously ill and was taken to hospital.
He is accused of murdering one of the newborn twin boys his daughter gave birth to in 1996, having failed to arrange medical care for the ailing infant.
Some legal experts have said it may be hard to prove the murder charge but the charge of enslavement carries a maximum penalty of 20 years, the BBC's Steve Rosenberg reports from St Poelten.
Some of the other charges against him carry a sentence of up to 15 years.

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