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15. 12. 09. - 17:00

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15. 12. 09. - 17:00

Kampusch attacks Austria

By Thomas Hochwarter

Former kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch has hit out at Austria at a press conference held to promote an upcoming TV documentary.

Speaking in Hamburg yesterday (Mon), the 21-year-old claimed there was a lot of resentment and aggressiveness against her person in her homeland.

"Criticising others and putting them down is part of the Viennese mentality," Kampusch – who spent eight years in captivity after being snatched off the street at the age of ten in 1998 – said.

Kampusch said Austrian journalists would often ask about "uncomfortable, intimate things" in contrast to the German media. Kampusch, however, dismissed speculation she might leave Austria. "Vienna is my hometown," she said.

The press conference was held to promote "Natascha Kampusch - 3.096 Tage Gefangenschaft" (Natascha Kampusch – 3,096 Days in Captivity), a 45-minute documentary to be screened on 25 January by German broadcaster ARD.

Kampusch decided to let the camera team film at the cellar dungeon she was held in by pervert Wolfgang Priklopil in Strasshof, Lower Austria. Kampusch acquired the estate shortly after she managed to escape her kidnapper’s clutches in August 2006. Priklopil committed suicide by jumping in front of a train the same day.

Kampusch also revealed she planned to meet Priklopil’s mother Waltraud, 67, for the first time.

"Contact between us should be established within the next two months," she explained.

Kampusch explained she still had problems getting along in her life. "I live a very quiet life and hardly ever go out," she said.

Kampusch said she would wish nothing more than to live a normal life.

Asked about future job plans, she admitted: "I have no idea what to do in my life, to be honest."

German prosecutors are currently examining documents confiscated at a man’s Tengen flat. Thomas Vogel claimed he was in possession of a sick video showing Kampusch and two other men in her cellar dungeon.

Officials are however sceptical about the seriousness of Vogel’s claims since the obscure German first hit the headlines by setting up a condolence book on the internet for Wolfgang Priklopil just hours after it emerged that the kidnapper had killed himself.

Vogel was recently convicted of fraud after he tried to sell a forged Picasso painting, while newspapers claimed he had a record of around 50 further convictions.

Austrian prosecutors, meanwhile, regard the former best friend of Wolfgang Priklopil as a suspect in the kidnapping. Ernst Holzapfel always claimed he had known nothing about the kidnapping of Kampusch but gave contradictory statements when questioned by state prosecutors recently.

Investigations of both Vogel and Holzapfel are ongoing.

Austrian Times

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