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CRIME

Missing journalist fell for Nigerian scam

A retired Austrian journalist who has been missing since the end of May is presumed dead, after losing large sums of money to a Nigerian ‘black money’ scam.

Published: 12 September 2014 16:21 CEST
Missing journalist fell for Nigerian scam
The ORF centre in Carinthia. Photo: APA/Hochmuth

Police spokesman Roman Hahslinger said that Peter Pirker, formerly head of the ORF regional news studio in Carinthia, was reported missing on May 21st and has not been seen since, nor are there any clues as to his whereabouts. Police believe he committed suicide.

He disappeared from his home in Vienna the day before his 70th birthday. In 2013 he fell for a scam known as the black money or wash wash scam, where con artists attempt to fraudulently obtain money from victims by persuading them that piles of banknote-sized paper in a trunk or a safe is really money which has been dyed black (to avoid detection by customs).

Pirker is believed to have been persuaded to pay for chemicals to wash the "money", thinking that he would then get a share in the proceeds.

News magazine reports that he flew to Paris last year to view a demonstration of the ‘money cleaning machine’, then sold his house in Carinthia and sent a large sum of money to Nigeria. He was declared bankrupt by the time he disappeared in May.

Relatives believe that he may have gone to Nigeria to find out what happened to his money.

Peter Pirker. Photo: APA/Eggenberger

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CRIME

Austrian court approves incest rapist Fritzl’s transfer to regular jail

An Austrian court said Tuesday it had approved the transfer of incest rapist Josef Fritzl to a regular jail as the 89-year-old was now unlikely to commit a crime.

Published: 15 May 2024 11:37 CEST
Austrian court approves incest rapist Fritzl's transfer to regular jail

Fritzl, who has changed his name, repeatedly raped his daughter he locked in a cellar for over 24 years, fathering seven children with her.

Served with a life sentence in 2019, Fritzl has been held in jail for the mentally ill who pose a high degree of danger in Krems, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Vienna.

In a ruling published Tuesday, the Krems regional court said Fritzl “can be transferred… to normal detention” since he “no longer poses a danger that requires placement” in a jail psychiatric unit.

It noted Fritzl’s “advanced dementia and physical decline” and said he was “no longer likely to commit a criminal offence with serious consequences”.

It also set a 10-year probation period.

READ ALSO: Could Austria’s notorious incest rapist Josef Fritzl one day be released?

The decision confirms an initial ruling in January, which was overturned by a higher court in March after prosecutors appealed.

Monday’s ruling follows a hearing on April 30, where updated findings by psychiatric experts were presented.

The verdict can still be appealed within the next two weeks.

Contacted by AFP, Fritzl’s lawyer, Astrid Wagner, called the ruling “a big success”, adding that she doesn’t expect prosecutors to appeal.

“Fritzl could be transferred as soon as the appeal period of two weeks has lapsed,” Wagner said, adding that she would apply for a conditional release from jail by 2025.

Fritzl was jailed for the murder by neglect of a newborn baby he fathered with his daughter Elisabeth while holding her in the specially-built basement of his house.

He was also found guilty of incest, sequestration, grievous assault and 3,000 instances of rape.

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