André Bamberski is finally getting what he has sought for 28 years: the trial of his daughter’s accused killer, Dieter Krombach of Germany. What makes Krombach’s case unusual was how he came to be in the custody of French law enforcement.

 

Krombach, 75, is being tried this week in France for raping and murdering his step-daughter, 14-year-old Kalinka Bamberski, in 1982. The cardiologist admitted to giving Kalinka an injection of iron cobalt to help her tan, plus other medication, prior to her death. An autopsy revealed injuries to Kalinka’s genitals and other evidence of rape. However, a cause of death was not determined. 

 

In 1995, a French court convicted Krombach in absentia for manslaughter and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. But German officials refused to extradite the doctor.

 

Two years later, Krombach was convicted in Germany of sexually abusing a 16-year-old patient after giving her an anesthetic. The trial produced five other patients claiming he had drugged and raped them. Krombach was given a suspended sentence, but his license to practice medicine was revoked. In 2006, Krombach was convicted of practicing medicine without a license.

 

Meanwhile, André Bamberski, now 73, grew tired of seeing Krombach a free man, so he allegedly hired people to stalk the doctor. On October 18, 2009, Krombach was kidnapped from his home in Germany, bound, gagged, driven across the border into France, and dumped on the street in front of a courthouse in Mulhouse. This is how he finally wound up in French custody awaiting trial.

 

Bamberski, though, faces charges of his own, for kidnapping.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Doctor in Court after Father's 29-Year Fight for Justice for Dead Daughter (by Kim Willsher, The Guardian)

German Faces Murder Trial in France after Being Kidnapped by Victim’s Father (by David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)