Justice for Kalinka?

Summary:

French Girl on holidays is found dead after her stepfather, who is a doctor, gives her an injection. He's given 15 years in France, but isn't extradited and stays free.

Girl's real father thinks she was raped and murdered, seeks justice and follows the stepfather everywhere.

For 29 years.

In Dec 09 the stepfather is kidnapped, driven to France, and is dumped outside a courthouse. Now he has to stand trial for her murder.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/28/france-court-kalinka-bamberski

At 9.30am in the Grande Salle of Paris's historic Palais de Justice, a story worthy of a bestselling thriller will begin to unfold; a tale of a mysterious death, international kidnapping, a struck-off doctor, cover-ups, legal loopholes and a grief-stricken father's promise to his dead daughter.

It is the story of Kalinka Bamberski, a pretty, sporty 14-year-old French girl who was found dead in bed one morning in July 1982 while spending the summer with her mother and stepfather in Germany.

The stepfather was Dr Dieter Krombach, a German GP, who admitted giving the teenager an injection of iron compound to help her tan more easily, and who was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced in his absence to 15 years in jail in France – but remained at liberty in Germany.

It is also the story of André Bamberski and his 29-year quest to bring to justice the man he is convinced raped and killed his daughter, and fulfil the posthumous vow he made her.

For nearly three decades, Bamberski, now 73, has waited for the day when he would see Krombach, now 75, in the dock to answer the many unanswered questions he has over Kalinka's death.

The 16-page German autopsy report told of an injury to her genitals, blood on her leg and a "white substance" in her vagina. There were also injection marks on her arms, right leg and thorax. However, Krombach was not questioned about the findings.

Three years later when Bamberski demanded an autopsy in France, it was found Kalinka's genitals, kidneys and rectum had been removed, ruling out further tests. The organs have never been found.

By the time Bamberski received the autopsy report, the German authorities had closed the case and concluded there was no foul play.

Bamberski concluded otherwise; he became convinced his daughter had been raped and murdered.

Since then he has waged a relentless campaign to have Krombach brought to court. By 1995 he had amassed enough evidence to persuade the French courts to try Krombach in his absence. Despite conviction and sentence, the German authorities refused to extradite him.

So Bamberski continued his campaign. Using private detectives, sympathetic locals and supporters of his campaign "Justice for Kalinka" he made sure he knew where Krombach was living and working – and that the doctor knew.

In 1997 Krombach pleaded guilty in a German court to sexually abusing a 16-year-old patient after sedating her, and was sentenced to two years in jail. He was banned from practising, but after his release continued until jailed for 18 months in 2006 for operating without a medical licence.

It seemed as if Bamberski's quest would fail. In 2012 the case would have reached the date of "prescription" as it is known in French law; the date beyond which no legal action could be brought in France and, worse, the date when Krombach could sue Bamberski for defamation.

Krombach had already successfully sued Bamberski in Germany and been awarded about £150,000 by a judge.

But in October 2009, Krombach was abducted from his home in Bavaria, bound, gagged, driven across the border and left in the street outside a courthouse in Mulhouse, eastern France. Bamberski was arrested and charged, but he has strenuously denied any involvement in the kidnapping.

However, the French case against Krombach was reopened. For the past 18 months French investigators have been re-examining the evidence and on Tuesday the findings will be heard in Paris, with new witnesses.

Even though Krombach has reportedly refused to answer the French investigators' questions, Bamberski is optimistic that justice will finally be done. "The relief will only come when the verdict is given," he told his local newspaper. "Waiting is a time of great tension, but I have long got used to that and before there wasn't hope, but now there is."

A German doctor who was kidnapped and driven across the border into France to face charges of killing his 14-year-old stepdaughter nearly 30 years ago has pleaded his innocence to a court.

Dieter Krombach, 75, looked distraught and put his head in his hands as judges ruled out his legal team's attempt to have the case thrown out and declared his trial for the death of French teenager Kalinka Bamberski would go ahead.

Leaning on a crutch in the dock, the frail former cardiologist, 75, dispensed with his translator to stand and address the court in French.

"I did not kill Kalinka. I want to stress that I am not guilty, that I did not kill Kalinka and that I did not rape Kalinka," he said. Sitting facing him on the opposite side of the oak-panelled court the girl's father André Bamberski, a civil party in the case, stared unmoved.

Bamberski, 73, a retired accountant has admitted orchestrating Krombach's kidnap after a crusade spanning nearly three decades to have the man he believes raped and killed his daughter brought to justice.

Next to him, separated by lawyers, was the dead girl's mother Daniele Gonnin, who was married to both men, and has, in the past, defended Krombach against Bamberski's accusations. She is also a civil party, saying she wants "to find out the truth".

Krombach's lawyers fought to have the case thrown out on the first day of the hearing on Tuesday, insisting the German authorities had declared there was no case against him and under European Union rules he could not be tried twice for the same crime. They also argued that his "violent" kidnapping had been an "odious crime" in itself.

Kalinka was found dead in her bed in the home her mother shared with Krombach near Lake Constance in Germany in July 1982. Krombach admitted giving her an injection of iron compound. He first said it was to help her tan, and later to combat anaemia, even though the sporty teenager was said to have been in perfect health.

Although German investigators dismissed the case for lack of evidence, France's legal authorities decided there was a case to answer. In 1995 Krombach was convicted in his absence of "intentional violence that led to unintentional death" – or manslaughter – in a French court and sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Krombach, who had refused to attend the trial, referred the case to the European court of human rights, which declared the French court had been wrong to conduct a trial in his absence and fined France.

However, two years later in Germany, Krombach pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl after sedating her in his office. He was given a two-year suspended sentence and banned from practising. He continued working and was later jailed for practising without a licence.

The case continues.

Innocent until proven guilty and all that, but if the stepfather is found guilty...What a hero the real father is.

Pace2008

Can worms etc.

seafood dunleavy

Fair play to him.