London, Mar 16 : Legal experts reckon that dungeon dad Josef Fritzl might be free in less than seven years, despite facing serious charged of rape, incest, and murder.

The 73-year-old Austrian engineer, whose trial begins today, held his daughter Elisabeth captive in a dungeon beneath his home, raped her for 24 long years, and fathered seven children with her.

He is even accused of killing one of his children named Michael through neglect, and incarcerating his body in the heating stove of the house.

Dr Raoul Wagner, an eminent Viennese lawyer, said that the charges had "little chance of working to keep Fritzl in jail for life."

Fritzl refutes the allegation of murder, but has admitted "in principle" to most of the other charges.

While Fritzl is scheduled to stand trial in St Poelten, the town where he has been held on remand ever since the cellar where he kept Elisabeth was discovered in April last year, officials have banned the media from attending the hearing.

"The murder charge has no chance as we only have Elisabeth''s word, and the body was allegedly burnt and the ashes scattered in the garden," the Scotsman quoted Wagner as saying.

"The slavery charge has never been used since it was put on the books; he did not buy or sell his daughter in the slave trade and the charges do not apply.

"As sentences for incest and rape charge run concurrently, the most he would face would be for rape, which means seven and-a-half years with (time cut for] good behaviour. With the year spent inside, he could be released in six and-a-half years.

"In a case like this the Austrian legal system is a nonsense. In America, for 3,000 rapes (the number he allegedly committed] a person would face 30,000 years in jail," he added. (ANI)