03. 09. 10. - 14:00

Adamovich hits out at judges for acquitting Kampusch kidnapper's pal

The former head of a special Natascha Kampusch investigation group has criticised judges for discharging her kidnapper’s best mate of complicity in suicide charges.

Ludwig Adamovich said about the recent trial against Ernst Holzapfel today (Fri): "They didn’t enquire properly at all."

The Viennese businessman was found not guilty of having assisted pervert Wolfgang Priklopil in escaping justice by committing suicide on the day Kampusch fled his clutches four years ago.

Adamovich was fined 5,000 Euros with another 5,000 Euros on probation last year for suggesting Kampusch’s time in captivity might have been better than her childhood before she was kidnapped on her way to school in 1998.

The former Federal Constitutional Court president made headlines last year when he claimed possible accomplices of the pervert jailer might be planning to kill Kampusch to stop her exposing them.

Adamovich told Viennese newspaper Heute that Kampusch’s upcoming autobiography "3,096 Tage" (3,096 Days) was of "great importance" considering open questions into her abduction.

Secret files leaked by Greens MP Peter Pilz last month show that police chiefs and ruling politicians tried to cover up that Kampusch could have been freed days after the kidnapping had investigators followed up a police dogs unit leader’s tip-off.

The man told colleagues dealing with the case of a "loner with a sexual tendency towards children" when he heard that investigations focused on owners of white vans. When stopped in a random traffic check, Priklopil told officers he was renovating his house when they asked him what the cement and other building materials were for. Police did not interview the paedophile despite knowing his address thanks to the canine squad head’s information.

Leaked files reveal that two senior police officers who personally knew the policeman asked him to keep quiet about his statements from 1998 shortly after Kampusch fled eight years later.

Pilz said he wanted to encourage Kampusch suing the Republic of Austria for damages. Her lawyer Gerald Ganzger is understood to consider the option which could earn his client up to half a million Euros, according to legal experts.

Pilz said it seemed to him officials at the People’s Party (ÖVP) attempted to cover up blunders of officers investigating the Kampusch case since general elections were due weeks after she ran to freedom in August 2006. The interior ministry – headed by late ÖVP official Liese Prokop in 2006 – is in charge of police in Austria.

The top secret documents he presented recently also show that Priklopil took her on at least 13 trips during the eight and a half years following her abduction.

Interview protocols with Kampusch show the pervert took Kampusch on cycling outings, shopping trips and on a trip to a building equipment tool store. It emerged already shortly after she escaped from his house in Strasshof an der Nordbahn, Lower Austria, that they went on a one-day skiing trip to a nearby winter sports resort.

Holzapfel said in court earlier this week Priklopil called himself an "abductor and rapist" after he asked him to pick him up from a mall in Vienna hours after Kampusch fled. The friends drove around for five hours during which the paedophile made a full confession of his crimes before throwing himself in front of a train.

Asked why he did not call police, Holzapfel told judges: "I knew everyone getting into Priklopil’s way put their lives at risk. He was ready to use violence. It was clear to me I was endangered. I was in the same situation as Natascha Kampusch."

Kampusch, who lives a secluded life in Vienna today, will present her autobiography at a bookstore in Vienna-Landstraße next Thursday (9 September).

Thalia shop manager Michaela Bokon said Kampusch informed her she will neither provide autographs nor answer any questions asked by fans.

Hundreds are expected to turn up for the book’s presentation during which the 21-year-old will speak about her experiences in a platform discussion.

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