Incest family reunion faces criticism

VIENNA, May 18 (UPI) -- Austrian hospital officials should not have reunited the two sets of siblings involved in the case of incest suspect Josef Fritzl, a lawyer said.

Helene Klaar -- a family law specialist in Vienna -- questioned the decision by officials at the Amstetten-Mauer psychiatric hospital to reunite family members who Fritzl allegedly locked in his cellar with those who were allowed to live freely elsewhere in the house, The Daily Telegraph said Sunday.

"I have the impression that the doctors and therapists are reviving a family system that has proven to be damaging for Elisabeth Fritzl in the past," Klaar said, referring to Josef Fritzl's daughter Elisabeth. "It is difficult to understand why must Elisabeth Fritzl now live with her mother, the same woman who never helped her as she was abused by her father."

Fritzl is accused of imprisoning his daughter in his cellar for 24 years, routinely raping her and producing seven children together. Three of the children were allowed to live with Fritzl and his wife, Rosemarie, while the rest remained trapped in the cellar.