Fritzl prosecutor calls for life sentence

The prosecutor called today for a life sentence for Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter in a windowless cell for 24 years and fathered her seven children.

Christiane Burkheiser demanded the maximum punishment in her closing arguments in Fritzl’s trial in St Poelten, west of Vienna, in Austria.

The court is expected to sentence Fritzl this afternoon.

The 73-year-old has pleaded guilty to all charges against him, including homicide for the death in captivity of an infant boy.

Prosecutors contend the ailing newborn baby might have survived if Fritzl had arranged for medical care.

Fritzl has also pleaded guilty to enslavement, rape, incest, forced imprisonment and coercion.