A court-appointed psychiatrist has determined that Austrian incest suspect Josef Fritzl was sane when he raped, impregnated and imprisoned his daughter.
Police discovered earlier this year that Fritzl, 73, had kept his daughter, Elisabeth Fritzl, in a cellar under his house in Amstetten for 24 years, where he had seven children with her.
Fritzl, who has confessed most of the allegations, was neither mentally ill, nor could he have been in a permanent state of inebriation over 24 years, Austrian newspaper Der Standard has reported, quoting unnamed sources close to the court proceedings with knowledge of the psychiatrist's report.
Gerhard Sedlacek, the prosecutor's spokesman at the Sankt Poelten court, told DPA there was a possibility the trial would be delayed until next year for procedural reasons.
Sedlacek did not comment on the psychiatrist's report.
According to media reports, neither Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, nor her children will appear at the trial, which will mostly be conducted in closed session.
Three of the children lived upstairs in the suspect's home, three lived in the cellar and one died shortly after birth.
