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17. 11. 09. - 16:00

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17. 11. 09. - 16:00

Kampusch dismisses blackmail claims

By Thomas Hochwarter

Former kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch has rubbished claims she is being blackmailed over the alleged existence of pornographic video material.

Kampusch – who was snatched off the street on her way to school aged ten in 1998 – stressed in an interview for ORF programme "Thema": "I am not being blackmailed."

Asked about paedophile sex videos allegedly recorded in the cellar dungeon she was held in for eight years by pervert Wolfgang Priklopil, the 21-year-old said: "They don’t exist."

A German man, Thomas Vogel, recently claimed he possessed a video showing Kampusch and two men in the cellar prison. German police last week confiscated documents at his Tengen flat. Austrian state prosecutors have refused to give further details on the materials.

Ludwig Adamovich, former head of the Austrian Constitutional Court and current head of a six-member special commission investigating whether police covered up controversial facts in the Kampusch case, recently said Kampusch’s life could be in danger as Priklopil accomplices bid to kill her to stop her exposing them.

Speaking on TV last night, Kampusch – who escaped the clutches of her pervert kidnapper in August 2006 – said: "I don’t know whether there is ,or was, an accomplice. I only ever saw Mr. Priklopil. But I don’t think the case will ever be completely solved."

Ernst Holzapfel, the former best friend of Wolfgang Priklopil, is meanwhile facing investigations over his possible involvement in the case. The businessman admitted in nine-hour police interviews last Friday that Priklopil confessed his crime before he committed suicide by jumping in front of a train on the day Kampusch escaped.

Holzapfel’s lawyer Manfred Ainedter said his client has only admitted this now because of fears he could become "involved" in the case.

Ainedter said he expected investigations against Holzapfel to be abandoned.

But Graz prosecutor Thomas Mühlbacher, who is leading the investigations, said: "Mister H. (Holzapfel) suddenly changed his version of the story after three years."

Kampusch reportedly rarely leaves her home these days and recently compared the life she is living now to one of a "hermit crab".

Austrian Times

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