AUSTRIAN JOSEF Fritzl has been charged with the murder of one of seven children he fathered with his daughter Elisabeth, imprisoned for 24 years in a soundproofed cellar under his home.
The 73-year-old will go on trial in March facing additional charges of rape, imprisonment, incest, coercion and "slave trading", according to a 27-page bill of indictment filed yesterday.
A month ago Mr Fritzl was found mentally fit to stand trial and, based on his confession so far, faces 10 to 20 years in jail. That could be raised to life if he is convicted of murdering a baby who died shortly after birth in 1996. Mr Fritzl has admitted disposing of the body in the cellar furnace.
The state prosecutor in the regional capital of St Pölten said the murder charge was justified because Mr Fritzl "failed to provide the necessary help through a third party despite recognising the life-threatening situation of the baby".
The slavery charge was justified, the prosecutor said, because from August 29th, 1984, to April 26th, 2008, Mr Fritzl held his daughter in a "slavery-like situation of complete dependency", demanded "sexual favours" and "treated her like his property".
As well as locking her and three children in a damp, claustrophobic cellar without daylight or fresh air, prosecutors accuse him of "scaring them with the threat of having mounted gas and explosive traps to prevent escape attempts".
Of the seven children Mr Fritzl fathered with his daughter, three were brought to live with himself and his wife in their apartment in Amstetten, west of Vienna. The other three lived with their mother in the secret cellar below.