A determined father in France took drastic measures after Germany denied the extradition of the man who killed his daughter.
In 1982, André Bamberski experienced the tragic loss of his 14-year-old daughter, Kalinka Bamberski.
Kalinka had been visiting Lindau, Bavaria, spending her summer with her mother and stepfather, Dieter Krombach.
During her stay, Krombach drugged Kalinka, leading to her death by suffocation.
Krombach admitted to administering a substance to Kalinka, claiming it was to help her tan more easily. However, the substances he injected turned out to be fatal.
Although Krombach was convicted in 1995, Germany refused to extradite him, and the French ministry of law did not issue an international warrant for his arrest.
Feeling denied of justice for his daughter’s death, Bamberski decided to take action himself.
According to The Independent, Bamberski reflected on his ordeal: “Those legal proceedings caused me to suffer so much. I felt like I couldn’t trust anyone any more.”
Despite knowing what Krombach had done, Bamberski saw that authorities would not bring him to justice. Consequently, he orchestrated Krombach’s abduction to France, a story later featured in a Netflix documentary.
In 2009, Bamberski traveled to Bregenz in Austria, near the German border, and posted advertisements seeking help to transport Krombach to France.
Anton Krasniqi, one of the respondents, recruited two Russian mobsters to assist in kidnapping Krombach from outside his residence.
The men transported a bound and gagged Krombach across the border into France.
After successfully getting Krombach into France, Bamberski made an anonymous call to the police, informing them of the captured fugitive.
Krombach was discovered with his hands and feet bound outside the prosecutor’s office in Mulhouse, near the German border.
Bamberski later confessed that he did not consider the legal repercussions of the kidnapping, stating that he ‘would not have gone ahead with it’ had he known.
Krombach was sentenced to 15 years in prison two years after his kidnapping for causing intentional bodily harm that resulted in unintentional death.
Bamberski himself avoided imprisonment for the kidnapping but received a one-year suspended sentence for his involvement.
In a 2022 interview, Bamberski defended his actions: “I fully respect that people can be morally against my removal of the doctor from Germany to France, but everyone must respect that – legally – I did nothing wrong.
“That was proven by the judicial system.”