Dieter Krombach in a German court in 2007 for other offences. Photo: dpa

German doctor kidnapped and dumped before French courthouse

Published: 20 Oct 09 12:49 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20091020-22689.html

A German cardiologist convicted of killing his French lover's daughter 27 years ago was kidnapped and dumped, bound and gagged, outside a French courthouse, police said Tuesday.

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Dieter Krombach, 74, was convicted in absentia in 1995 of manslaughter in France over the death of 14-year-old Kalinka Bamberski, who died mysteriously at his home in Lindau in Germany while visiting with her mother in 1982.

The doctor was found on Sunday trussed up and bleeding from a head wound, in a doorway near the court in the eastern city of Mulhouse, just over the German border, police said.

The doctor's French legal counsel said his client had been taken against his will. "It was a kidnapping, my client was taken by force in Germany," said lawyer Francois Serres.

Kalinka's father, Andre Bamberski - who is convinced Krombach drugged his daughter in order to rape her and has lobbied for two decades for him to be jailed - was also arrested in Mulhouse.

Bamberski made an anonymous phone call to police about Krombach's whereabouts, he admitted to police during questioning. The German cardiologist was taken to hospital under police custody.

Bamberski set up a 300-strong pressure group, "Justice for Kalinka," that has campaigned for Krombach to be jailed for his daughter's killing.

The head of Bamberski's association, Robert Pince, said he believed the girl's father had tried to deliver Krombach to the courts.

"Of course I suspect Andre Bamberski of trying to bring Dieter Krombach back to France, even if I cannot say so for certain," he said.

"Andre Bamberski is a very religious man. He does not want revenge, he wants justice," Pince said. "He has been fighting for 25 years and maybe he felt the case was dying off. He may have wanted to give a good kick and stir things up."

Kalinka Bamberski was found dead at the doctor's home on the banks of Lake Constance one morning in July 1982, bearing needle marks on her arms.

German investigators questioned Krombach over her death, but they failed to establish the cause of death and the case was dismissed for lack of evidence the following month. But France reopened the case three years later after an autopsy on
Kalinka's exhumed body, carried out at her father's request, suggested foul play.

In 1995, Krombach was sentenced to 15 years for manslaughter and an international warrant was issued for his arrest.

But Krombach also won a 2001 case against France before the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that he had been denied a fair hearing and the right to an appeal.

The doctor was handed a two-year suspended sentence by a German court in 1997 for sexually abusing a 16-year-old patient after injecting her with anaesthetic in his surgery. In 2007 he was convicted of fraud for continuing to practice medicine illegally after being stripped of his licence.

AFP (news@thelocal.de)

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13:13 October 20, 2009 by auniquecorn
A French court sentenced Krombach in absentia to 15 years for manslaughter in 1995. His French trial came after an autopsy on Kalinka's exhumed body, carried out at her father's request, suggested foul play in her death.

but Germany refused to hand him over on the grounds that he has already been tried by a German court, which dismissed the case for lack of evidence.

Krombach was handed a two-year suspended sentence by a German court in 2007 for sexually abusing a 16-year-old patient after injecting her with anaesthetic in his surgery.

TYPICAL GERMAN JUSTICE.

but, but, He only raped her before he killed her....

and she was only french...

This Sh*t makes me sick.
15:03 October 20, 2009 by maxbrando
Maybe they can trade him for Polanski. Gee, German courts are so biased against women and sooo protective of German men. Sickening stuff, this.
16:57 October 20, 2009 by Orla_inka
I applaud the kidnappers - way to go.
16:03 October 21, 2009 by hkypuck
thank god they pixeled his eyes out, that really protects his identity...oh wait, his name is plastered all over this article.

Very strange how people get away with stuff in this country. Why is that judges that hand down these sentences are seldom named in these reports. This issue of guilt mostly falls on the jury and legal loopholes can set guilty people free. But once a person has been convicted it's usually the judge that hands down the punishment.

What is a "suspended sentence" anyway?

And why does it take 13 years (1982-1995) to finish a trial?
16:09 October 21, 2009 by Steven192
Jury? What jury would that be then?

Good to see such keen legal minds deciding that the German judical system is so pants.
16:29 October 21, 2009 by Krieg
The father of the girl was arrested and charged for kidnapping the SOB.
23:07 October 22, 2009 by ian
According to this story in the Times
It is the tale of a retired accountant from near Toulouse who ordered the kidnapping of a retired cardiologist in Germany over the weekend. The case is unusual. It goes back to 1982. André Bamberski, 72, the accountant , was on the radio explaining this morning how he paid 20,000 euros to have Dr Dieter Krombach, 74, abducted in his home-town of Scheidegg in Bavaria on Saturday. He was dumped in the French city of Mulhouse on Sunday.

Public opinion is on Bamberski's side because his act in hiring a gang of east European kidnappers is seen as understandable. In 1995, Krombach was convicted in his absence by a Paris court of killing Bamberski's 14-year-old daughter Kalinka.The German authorities refused to take any action because their prosecutors had found that there was no case to answer in the 1980s. The French authorities made no serious attempt to seek Krombach's extradition, the father says.
The law seems to be an ass in this case.

Edit: it seems the google search term "Kidnap" did not spot the Locals post. And Full search did not find the word Bamberski.

23:50 October 22, 2009 by gabi1
poor father, having to seek such measures to get some form of closure.

Having spared the police job, he should now sue the German government for the costs of expatriation!
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