Fritzl in custody for further month

An Austrian court has ordered Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and had seven children with her, to be kept in custody for a further month, a court spokesman said today.

Lawyer Rudolf Mayer, representing Fritzl, made no objection at a 15-minute closed hearing, prosecution spokesman Gerhard Sedlacek told reporters outside the court.

He said it had not been decided when prosecutors would question Fritzl again after a session earlier this week.

Fritzl is in prison in the Lower Austrian regional capital of St Poelten after the case that shocked the world emerged nearly two weeks ago.

Fritzl's daughter Elisabeth, 42, spent nearly a quarter of a century in a windowless cell in the basement of his house, giving birth to seven of his children.

Three of the six surviving children, now aged between 19 and 5 years, were locked up with their mother, while another three were raised by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie as their own. One child died shortly after birth.

Prosecutors are investigating Fritzl for rape, incest, coercion and the death of the baby, though he has not been charged. Police say he has admitted incarceration and incest.

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