Josef Fritzl's lawyer receives death threats

The lawyer for Josef Fritzl claimed on Monday that he has received a death threat over handling the case of the 73 year-old suspect, who confessed last week that he held his daughter captive in a windowless cell for 24 years and fathered seven children with her. He also confessed he tossed the body of one of the children, who died in infancy, into a furnace. Fritzl has not yet been charged, but remains in pre-trial detention.

His lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, told AP Television on Monday that he has received several e-mails threatening him. Quoting one of the alleged letters, Mayer said it read: 'We will catch you, during the Euro 2008 people will come to your office. You should be imprisoned with him. You should be executed together with him'. He said he could not confirm whether Fritzl had received a similar threat. "The justification of the threat is that if he is a monster, criminal, and a pig then, I have to be liquidated together with him", Mayer said.

"All that I am doing is defending my client as is my duty as a lawyer", he said, adding the alleged threat "shocked" him. AP Television cannot independently verify the authenticity of Mayer's claim. Earlier on Monday, Mayer indicated Fritzl is preparing an insanity defence. Prosecutors told reporters in Amstetten, Fritzl's hometown about 120 kilometres (75 miles) west of Vienna, that they will have their first meeting, with the 73-year-old suspect on Wednesday or Thursday.

Mayer said Fritzl had "surrendered to fate". Authorities first began to unravel the complex story April 19, when a 19-year-old girl who Fritzl fathered with his daughter, Elisabeth, was admitted to a hospital suffering from an unidentified infection.

Doctors, unable to find any medical records for the girl, appealed on television for her mother to come forward. Fritzl then accompanied Elisabeth to the hospital on April 26 and opened up to police.

The 19-year-old remained hospitalized on Monday in critical but stable condition. Officials said she is still being kept in an artificial coma to help her breathe.

Investigators have said they believe Fritzl concealed his crimes from his wife, Rosemarie, and her sister said Rosemarie believed her husband's cover story that Elisabeth had run away from home to join a cult.