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CRIME

Kidnapped German doctor held in France for 1982 murder

A German doctor who was kidnapped and taken to France was ordered held Wednesday on a warrant issued following his conviction for the 1982 murder of a French girl, a judicial official said.

Kidnapped German doctor held in France for 1982 murder
Photo: DPA

A bail judge held a hearing at the Hotel-Dieu hospital in Paris and ruled that German cardiologist Dieter Krombach should be held under the warrant issued following his 1995 conviction by a French court.

Due to the injuries he suffered during the kidnapping, Krombach, 74, will remain in hospital.

French prosecutors on Tuesday pressed preliminary charges against the father of the murdered girl, Frenchman Andre Bamberski, 74, for Krombach’s kidnapping and beating.

Krombach was found before dawn on Sunday in a doorway in the eastern French city of Mulhouse, just over the German border, bound and gagged and bleeding from a head injury.

A French court in 1995 convicted the doctor in absentia of manslaughter over the death of 14-year-old Kalinka Bamberski, his stepdaughter, who died at his home in Lindau in Germany in 1982 after he gave her a mysterious injection.

Berlin had refused to hand him over to the French courts, who sentenced him to 15 years of jail, on the grounds that he had already been tried and acquitted in Germany.

Bamberski, who had long pressed for Krombach’s arrest, told journalists after being released on bail that he had ordered the doctor’s kidnapping and delivery to France, but denied ordering him to be beaten.

The German doctor won a 2001 case against France before the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that he had been denied a fair hearing and the right to an appeal in the case.

A German court convicted the cardiologist in 1997 of sexually abusing a 16-year-old patient after injecting her with anaesthetic in his surgery. He was handed a two-year suspended sentence and stripped of his licence.

In 2007 he was convicted of fraud for continuing to practice illegally.

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CRIME

Aide to German far-right MEP arrested on suspicion of spying for China

An aide to a German far-right politician standing in June's European Union elections has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, German prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Aide to German far-right MEP arrested on suspicion of spying for China

The man, named only as Jian G., stands accused of sharing information about negotiations at European Parliament with a Chinese intelligence service and of spying on Chinese opposition figures in Germany, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

On the website of the European Parliament, Jian Guo is listed as an accredited assistant to MEP Maximilian Krah, the far-right AfD party’s lead candidate in the forthcoming EU-wide elections.

He is a German national who has reportedly worked as an aide to Krah in Brussels since 2019.

The suspect “is an employee of a Chinese secret service”, prosecutors said.

“In January 2024, the accused repeatedly passed on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament to his intelligence service client.

“He also spied on Chinese opposition members in Germany for the intelligence service.”

The suspect was arrested in the eastern German city of Dresden on Monday and his homes were searched, they added.

The accused lives in both Dresden and Brussels, according to broadcasters ARD, RBB and SWR, who broke the news about the arrest.

The AfD said the allegations were “very disturbing”.

“As we have no further information on the case, we must wait for further investigations by federal prosecutors,” party spokesman Michael Pfalzgraf said in a statement.

The case is likely to fuel concern in the West about aggressive Chinese espionage.

It comes after Germany on Monday arrested three German nationals suspected of spying for China by providing access to secret maritime technology.

READ ALSO: Germany arrests three suspected of spying for China

China’s embassy in Berlin “firmly” rejected the allegations, according to Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua.

According to German media, the two cases are not connected.

In Britain on Monday, two men were charged with handing over “articles, notes, documents or information” to China between 2021 and last year.

Police named the men as Christopher Berry, 32, and Christoper Cash, 29, who previously worked at the UK parliament as a researcher.

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