AUSTRIA:Austria's leading criminal lawyer may contest the admissibility of some evidence, writes Derek Scally
RUDOLF MAYER has seen a lot in his 30-year career and seems remarkably unfazed by his latest client.
Earlier this week, the slim, dark-haired Viennese attorney agreed to represent Josef Fritzl.
Hours earlier, the 73-year-old Austrian engineer confessed to imprisoning his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years and fathering seven children after repeated sexual assault.
Police in the town of Amstetten released pictures of Fritzl to the media, announced he was the sole perpetrator and pronounced the case "more or less solved".
Some would describe Rudolf Mayer's task as defending the indefensible. But not the man dubbed Austria's most famous criminal lawyer.
He says he decided to take the case just 30 seconds after meeting Fritzl. The deal clincher? What he calls Fritzl's "Jack Nicholson" eyes.
"I turn off my rational brain, turn on my instincts and concentrate on a person's eyes," he says.
On their second meeting, he let Fritzl talk for two hours about his life to allow him build a better picture.
"I am interested in cases like this with a psychological as well as a criminal element," he says. "There is an explanation for every deed and for every criminal act."
Dr Mayer is under no illusions that his client's case will take some explaining.
But already it is clear that he is plotting out several lines of approach.
The first and perhaps quickest resolution is to press the issue of Fritzl's sanity, and thus of his responsibility for his actions.
"Austrian law recognises that some psychological problems can result in someone not knowing that something is wrong, or someone thinking that he has no choice but to do a wrong thing," says Dr Mayer. "That person's ability to decide on right or wrong can be damaged. These things lead a legal definition of mental incapacity, or insanity."
Dr Mayer also may contest the confession made by Fritzl just hours after the case broke and before he spoke to a lawyer.
"For years defenders in Austria have been calling for every confession from suspects to be recorded on video so that we have proof of what was said and in what circumstances," he says.
For now, he has urged his client not to speak any further to police, saying "he's already said too much".
There is also scope, he says, to challenge the claim by prosecutors yesterday that a 1967 court file detailing Fritzl's trial for rape and indecent exposure will "naturally have a relevance for the current case".
Dr Mayer points out that such charges are deleted from criminal records after 15 years, in line with Austrian law, after which they can neither be considered by courts nor mentioned by police and prosecutors.
"If this was the Anglo-Saxon legal system, my client could win a huge damages claim against the police for everything they've told the media," he said.
Dr Mayer is worried that Fritzl's previous convictions could influence the trial because the Austrian legal system does not allow for selection of what prosecution and defence agree is a fair and unbiased jury.
"We take jury members in alphabetical order from the register, and a sympathetic defendant is 100 times more likely to win a case than an unsympathetic defendant," he said.
Yesterday the lead prosecution lawyer, Christoph Herbst, resigned after a political controversy over his appointment.
His successor, Eva Plaz, was unavailable for comment.