German doctor kidnapped and smuggled into France to face charge of killing young girl on holiday is jailed for 15 years

Victim's natural father hired Russian kidnappers so that killer could face justice

Case has divided investigators in France and Germany

Dead girl's dad now faces criminal charges for organising kidnap



Victim: Kalinka Bamberski is seen in this undated family photo. Dieter Krombach, a German doctor and the stepfather of Kalinka, has been jailed for 15 years for killing her

A German doctor has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for killing his teenage stepdaughter after he was kidnapped and smuggled into France to face justice.

Dieter Krombach, 76, was found guilty by a French court on Saturday for unintentionally killing Kalinka Bamberski in Bavaria in 1982.

It followed a three-week trial which only came about after the victim's natural father, Andre Bamberski, hired a team of Russian kidnappers to take Krombach from Germany to France to face a court.

The bizarre case has divided French and German investigators.



In 1995, Krombach, a cardiologist, was found guilty of manslaughter by a French court in absentia while living in Bavaria.

German investigators had ruled in 1987 that there was insufficient evidence to charge Krombach and extradition to France was refused.

Krombach thought he would be safe in his home in Germany.

But Mr Bamberski, 74, waged a relentless campaign to bring the ageing suspect before a French court and went to extreme lengths by hiring a team of professional Russian kidnappers.

Two years ago the medic was bundled into the back of a blacked-out limousine car, bound and gagged, and driven to France.





After being hauled out of the back of a limousine by the Russian kidnappers, Mr Krombach was found tied and gagged next to a court building in Mulhouse, the French city on the German border.

French law allowed him to be retried before a judge.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Mr Bamberski told how he was delighted with the verdict.

'My first thought is for Kalinka,' he said. 'What I promised her, what I wanted was a complete and fair trial. Now that goal has been reached. Justice has been done in her memory and now I will be able to mourn for her.'

Happier times: Kalinka Bamberski, left, is seen with her stepfather Dieter Krombach and an unidentified young woman in this family photo. Krombach has been sent to prison for killing his stepdaughter

Facing charges: Andre Bamberski, second left, father of Kalinka Bamberski, speaks to the media during the trial of German doctor Dieter Krombach. He hired professional kidnappers to take Krombach to France to face justice

Mr Bamberski, who is French, now faces kidnapping charges for Krombach's abduction.

The retired accountant has admitted organising the abduction of his daughter's killer but denies paying any money to abductors. He says it was justified because Krombach would otherwise have escaped justice.

His daughter died in 1982 aged 14 while on holiday with her mother near Lake Constance in southern Germany.

Prosecution counsel Pierre Kramer said Krombach raped the French teenager after drugging her, inadvertently causing her death when she suffocated in her sleep.

Krombach claimed he had given her an iron injection to help improve her suntan.



Denial: Dieter Krombach, left, has always insisted he was innocent of attacking his stepdaughter Kalinka Bamberski



An initial autopsy report pointed to signs of injury to her genitals, but subsequent tests were rendered inconclusive.



Suspicious white and red fluids were also found on Kalinka's underwear and legs.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Kalinka's mother Danielle Gonnin, told the court that she had found her daughter lifeless in bed.

'I immediately thought of the injection, but Dieter Krombach told me: "No, there's never been any problem with these injections.'

The court in Paris said on Saturday that Krombach was guilty of 'wilful violence leading to death without intent'.

In 1997 - in a completely separate case - he was convicted of drugging and raping a 16-year-old patient and received a two-year suspended prison sentence.

Krombach's attorneys had said the French trial was illegal and argued the case should be heard by the European Court of Human Rights. They said they would appeal against the latest court decision.

A legal observer from Germany went to the Paris trial.

The country has made it clear that it disapproves of both the kidnapping and retrial.











