The Kalinka Bamberski case has spanned 30 years and has caused considerable publicity because of the issues of French-German relations and vigilante justice it raised.
Kalinka Bamberski, a French teenager, was killed in 1982 in the house of her German stepfather, Dieter Krombach, a serial rapist and former physician.
Suspicious autopsy results caused the girl's French father André Bamberski to pressure German authorities into investigating Krombach's involvement in the death.
Krombach stood trial there, was convicted in 2011 of having caused intentional bodily harm resulting in unintentional death, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
[3] Krombach stated that on the evening of 9 July 1982 right after dinner he injected her with Kobalt-Ferrlecit, a cobalt-iron preparation that he liked to use on several family members and friends.
The expert concluded that the timeline given by Krombach was not convincing and that it was more likely that an injection right after dinner had caused circulatory failure, unconsciousness, vomiting, and death.
[2] The case ended before the Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court) in Munich in 1987 with a finding that there was insufficient evidence to prove that Krombach's injection negligently or intentionally caused the girl's death.
An evaluation by French doctors was ordered, which pointed to the poor quality of the original toxicological analyses and concluded that the injection site at the right arm occurred close to death, not several hours before.
[9] In 1995, following intense lobbying by Bamberski, Krombach was tried in France in absentia and received a sentence of 15 years in prison for "intentionally afflicting of bodily harm which caused unintentional death".
[2] Bamberski, concerned that the statute of limitations would run out in 2012, paid several men to abduct Krombach and deliver him to French authorities.
[2] On 17 October 2009, Krombach, by then 74 years old, was beaten up by three men in his home town of Scheidegg, Bavaria, and driven to Mulhouse, France, where he was left chained to a fence near the police station.
[20] On 22 October 2011, Krombach was sentenced to 15 years in prison for causing intentional bodily harm resulting in unintentional death.
The Court rejected the appeal in March 2018, holding that the independent prosecutions in Germany and France were not ruled out by the European Convention on Human Rights.