AUSTRIA: Austrian girl's advisor says Natascha Kampusch practiced her TV interview, "is a person with high intelligence."

The advisor of an Austrian girl who was kidnapped for eight years has said in Vienna on Wednesday (September 6) that Natascha Kampusch practiced her interview with ORF television before it was to be aired later today. Kampusch will show her face to the world on Wednesday to describe her eight-year kidnap ordeal in her first television interview, her adviser told Reuters. No picture has been published of the 18-year old woman since her dash to freedom from a small cell in a sleepy town outside Vienna two weeks ago, which sparked a worldwide media frenzy. "The medical team prepared her very well and we told her how question and answer mechanisms work. We practiced every single question, then looked at the video together to see how the answers come across. I told her what impressions they might leave. She has her own will and said 'I want it in such and such a way.' We then discussed alternatives. She really was very well prepared. Of course it was tiring but she wanted to do it which I could feel. She was - and this sounds stupid in such a situation - she was very, very good," Ecker told Reuters. In the interview, due to be broadcast by Austrian state television at 1815 GMT, Kampusch will show her face but cover her hair to allow her to change her looks later, Ecker said "We tried not to pass on to her the great pressure which occurred over the last two weeks since her release. But she is interested and informed about the great interest. That's the first point. The second is that during captivity, she decided to go public in case she was released. So we had to come up with a solution which was bearable for her and did not expose her to the full (media) machinery. I think we succeeded. We conducted one big interview with ORF which was done in a very sensitive way. It will be distributed internationally. There will be two parts: the first one corrects what was reported wrongly, which is very important to her. She is also sending the messages she intended to send during her captivity in case she was going to be released," Ecker said. The details of one of Austria's most notorious crimes have kept the nation spellbound since Kampusch escaped from her abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil, while he took a phone call outside his house in Strasshof, some 25 km (15 miles) outside Vienna. Police have said Kampusch had "sexual contact" with the 44-year old communications technician, but did not elaborate. Psychologists have said the young woman bore deep mental scars. The ORF journalist who spoke to Kampusch said he was surprised by her confidence but also shocked by the interview. Kampusch, who was just 10 years old when she was kidnapped and held in a windowless room in Priklopil's house, told him how she tried in vain to catch people's attention when visiting a DIY store once with her captor. The young woman had been on several outings as her captor relaxed his grip in the months before her escape. While ORF has not paid for the interview, the broadcaster has sold international media rights, and all proceeds will go into a fund for Kampusch, said Ecker. He declined to specify how big the fees agreed for the rights are. Kampusch also gave interviews to News magazine and daily Kronen-Zeitung in return for a package including housing support, a long-term job offer and help with her education.

ITN Source | September 7, 2006

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