An Austrian court on Monday blocked a lower court ruling that the rapist Josef Fritzl, nicknamed the “Amstetten Monster,” could be transferred to a regular prison, clearing the way for his parole, Reuters reported.

Fritz, who has since changed his name, raped and kidnapped his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years, fathering 7 children during her captivity.

A man kidnapped Elizabeth in the basement of the family home when she was 18 years old. Three of the 7 children born while the young woman was incarcerated were released when the case was opened in 2008. Fritzl and his wife took care of the other 3 children, telling neighbors and relatives that Elisabeth had abandoned them after she decided to join a religious cult.

A man cremated the lifeless body of his seventh child in the furnace of the family home shortly after he died at birth.

This case shocked Austria and was widely covered by the international press when it was discovered 16 years ago.

In 2009, Fritzl was sentenced by Austrian justice to life imprisonment, serving his sentence in a sanatorium for people with mental disorders. Austrian justice found him guilty of murder, slavery, kidnapping, rape and incest.

Earlier this year, the man’s lawyers asked to transfer him to a regular prison, arguing that he no longer poses a threat to society.

The “Monster from Amstetten” never expressed remorse for his actions

A court in the city of Krems an der Donau granted the request in late January, paving the way for Fritzl’s release on bail, but prosecutors appealed the decision in an appeals court. The case was considered by the Higher Provincial Court in Vienna.

Unlike the first court, it “concluded that the facts necessary for such a conditional release were not fully met,” this court in the Austrian capital announced on Monday.

He announced that he blocked the decision of the lower court in Krems and ordered it to consider the case more carefully before issuing a new decision.

Astrid Wagner, Fritzl’s lawyer, says the 88-year-old is now suffering from dementia, but has been able to follow court proceedings since January, when it was decided to transfer him from the sanatorium where he was serving his sentence.

In 2013, in the small town of Amstetten, located 100 km from Vienna, where Fritzl committed his terrible deeds, the authorities poured concrete over the “cellar of horrors” – a condition necessary for the house to be put up for sale.

Now 56-year-old Elisabeth Fritzl and her children have moved to an undisclosed location under a new name to try to rebuild their lives in anonymity.

Josef Fritzl, who threatened to gas the entire family if any of its members escaped, never expressed remorse. However, according to his lawyer, he “thinks about his actions day and night.”