'The Serpent' serial killer Charles Sobhraj returns to France
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A Frenchman linked to the murders of more 20 western backpackers on the “hippie trail” through Asia between 1972 and 1982, was returned to his homeland after decades in a Nepalese prison.
Dubbed “The Serpent,” Charles Sobhraj had spent 19 years behind bars in Nepal for killing two people in 1975 before that country’s Supreme Court ordered his release due to failing health, and good behavior.
Nepalese law allows inmates who have exhibited good behavior to be released after they complete at least 75% of their prison term.
Sobhraj has heart disease and will need open-heart surgery, according to the court.
The 78-year-old French national, who was born to an Indian father and Vietnamese mother, landed at Paris’ main international airport and was escorted off the plane by police after he was formally released on Friday.
“He is well, he is a free man,” said Sobhraj’s lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre told Reuters. Asked what his next steps would be, she said: “He will file a legal complaint against Nepal because the whole case against him was fabricated.”
Sobhraj had been held in a high-security prison in Nepal since 2003, when he was arrested on charges of murdering American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975. In 2014, found guilty of killing Bronzich’s Canadian friend, Laurent Carriere, and had served 19 years out of a 20-year sentence.
While behind bars, Sobhraj married Nihita Biswas, a Nepali woman 44 years younger than him, Al Jazeera reported.
Following his release, Sobhraj told French news agency AFP that he was not guilty of murdering Bronzich and Carriere.
“I have a lot to do. I have to sue a lot of people,” Sobhraj told AFP.
Sobhraj is suspected of committing more murders, including in Thailand, where police say he killed six women in the 1970s, some of whom turned up dead on a beach near the resort of Pattaya.
However, he was jailed in India for poisoning a group of French tourists in New Delhi in 1976 before he could stand trial on the charges in Thailand.
Ultimately, Sobhraj was accused of committing crimes across the world in countries including France, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Napal, India, Thailand, and Malaysia.
He earned the nickname “The Serpent” after escaping prisons in multiple countries and evading authorities and the moniker later became the title for BBC and Netflix series about his exploits.
France’s interior and justice ministries have not said whether they plan to bring any charges against Sobhraj, who is barred from returning to Nepal for at least 10 years.
with Post wires
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