Alleged incest compared to Austrian case

updated 5:39 p.m. ET May 11, 2009

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - An Argentine judge is investigating a woman's accusation that she had seven children with her father during decades of incest starting when she was 8.

Armando Lucero, 67, denied the allegations as he was escorted into court Monday to testify in a case that has drawn comparisons to that of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man convicted of holding his daughter captive for 24 years and fathering her seven children.

"No, no," Lucero responded to journalists' questions about the accusations against him.

Lucero refused to testify and was returned to a jail where he has been held in preventive custody since Friday, Mendoza province prosecutor Marcelo Gutierrez del Barrio told local media.

The centerpiece of the case will be the pending results of DNA tests of the children allegedly born from incest, Gutierrez del Barrio said.

"The victim has wanted to bring this case to the light for a long time, but fear prevented her from doing so," Gutierrez del Barrio said.

The woman's name has not been revealed to protect her identity.

Lucero has 13 other children from two marriages, Mendoza Security Minister Carlos Ciurca told local media. Officials are investigating if Lucero's other children are also victims of incest.

The case was brought to the attention of two Mendoza lawmakers six months ago by one of the woman's brothers.

"At first, I thought (the brother) was making it up because the situation was so serious that we couldn't believe it," lawmaker Ricardo Puga, head of a rights commission in the Mendoza legislature, told The Associated Press.

The young man, whose identity has not been revealed, said Lucero had been raping the now 35-year-old woman since she was 8, fathering her seven children.

The woman agreed to testify after the judge warned her that her 16-year-old daughter could also become an incest victim if Lucero remains free, Puga said.

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