It is almost 36 years since kalinka died in mysterious circumstances. The 14-year-old french girl was found dead in the house of her stepfather dieter K. Found in lindau on lake constance.
But the case is still occupying the judiciary in 2018 – even though the stepfather is now in prison in france. With a new court decision, the affair was now allowed to end.
On thursday the european court of human rights rejected an appeal by the now 82-year-old stepfather of the dead against his conviction in france. This means that the german doctor must remain in french custody, he can no longer take legal action against him.
The final decision was preceded by decades of franco-german judicial drama. After kalinka’s death in 1982, there was initially no guilty party. The autopsy of her body revealed genital injuries. Moreover, kalinka’s body showed injection marks. But the german judiciary soon stopped its investigation against the stepfather for lack of evidence. K. Remained at large.
The fact that he is in jail today is due to a spectacular case of vigilante justice. Kalinka’s biological father loved dieter K. Taken to france in 2009. Accomplices dumped the german bound, gagged and injured in mulhouse, alsace. He was arrested there, because the authorities in france were still investigating him.
In 2011 K was finally. Sentenced to 15 years in prison by a paris court for bodily injury resulting in death. The judges considered it proven that the doctor wanted to rape his stepdaughter and gave her sedatives and a lethal injection. K. Self had always protested his innocence.
However, in the eyes of the judges, a conviction for another sexual offense also spoke against him. In 1997, a court in kempten had imposed two years of imprisonment on the physician for having sedated and raped a 16-year-old girl with sleeping pills in his practice – his sperm ran over him.
For kalinka’s biological father it is a late satisfaction that K. Now through legal channels can no longer be released early from prison. "Today i am satisfied," the 80-year-old told the german press agency shortly after the human rights court’s decision. For many years he had been psychologically agitated. The judges in strasbourg had taken far too much time with their decision.
The complaint of dieter K. Had already been received in strabburg in 2014. K. Saw his conviction in france violate his right not to be tried twice for the same criminal matter. But this argumentation was not followed by the judges in strasbourg. Germany and france had been investigating him independently, it was revealed. This was not prohibited by the relevant article in an additional protocol to the european convention on human rights.
Kalinka’s father spent almost half his life fighting for dieter K. Punishing – by any means necessary. For the kidnapping, he was sentenced to one year in prison on probation. But the 80-year-old still stands by the action today: "all legal procedures were blocked," he said. "I could not do anything else at all."