Fritzl lied about door timer

London, Aug. 8: Austrian incest fiend Josef Fritzl lied that he rigged the cellar door to open if he died, it has emerged.

This revelation implies that his daughter and the kids she bore him would have been entombed forever. Fritzl, 73, had told the police that the 50-stone mass of steel and concrete had a timer, which would automatically open if he did not reset it.

He claimed it ensured his secret brood would be freed if he failed to visit them, reports the Sun.

But a report has revealed that whatever he said about the door was rubbish — and Elisabeth, 42, and kids Kerstin, 19, Stefan, 18, and six-year-old Felix would have slowly starved to death. The report stated that the door to cellar could only be opened by Fritzl’s remote control or a switch outside the cellar. Fritzl imprisoned Elisabeth 24 years ago when she was just 18. She bore him seven kids before the outrage was discovered in April.

He raised three of them with his wife Rosemarie, 69, above the cellar. Fritzl is likely to be tried in December on charges of slavery, rape and incest.

—ANI

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Novel on Prophet’s wife dropped

By OUR LONDON

CORRESPONDENT

London

Aug. 8: A publishing house has decided to scrap its plans to publish a book on the Prophet Mohammed’s wife, Hazrat Aisha.

Random House was due to publish The Jewel of Medina, a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones, 46, next Tuesday, the Daily Telegraph reported. The publishing house cancelled the publication of the novel fearing that it could become the focus of Muslim anger, like Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses.

The novel follows the life of Hazrat Aisha from her engagement to Prophet Mohammed. Ms Jones was quoted as saying that she was shocked to learn in May that publication of her book would be postponed indefinitely.