French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who plagued Asia in the 1970s and inspired the Netflix series ” The snake “was released from prison in Nepal and will be transferred to France this Friday.
“The government of Nepal wants to return him as soon as possible. Sobhraj wants it too”said his lawyer Gopal Shiwakoti Chintan, who took him a ticket on Qatar Airways, leaving at 6 p.m. “The French Embassy brings him his travel document”he added.
The decision to release him Charles Sobhraj, 78, imprisoned in this Himalayan republic since 2003 for the murder of two North American tourists, was taken by the Supreme Court of Nepal on Wednesday.
The serial killer was originally scheduled to be released on Thursday but his release was delayed by a day due to logistical and legal issues. Charles Sobhraj is in need of open-heart surgery and his release is in accordance with a Nepalese law allowing the release of bedridden prisoners who have already served three-quarters of their sentence, according to the court which ordered him to be deported to 15 days to France.
“The Bikini Killer”
Before the announcement of his transfer, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs had for its part made it known that France would welcome him if a request for extradition was made to him. “notified”. In this case, “France would be required to do so since Mr. Sobhraj is a French national”, explained a spokeswoman for this ministry. The French Embassy in Nepal is monitoring the situation, the same source indicated.
A French citizen of Vietnamese and Indian descent, Charles Sobhraj began traveling the world in the early 1970s and found himself in the Thai capital, Bangkok. Posing as a dealer in gems, he befriended his victims, often Western backpackers on the trail of 1970s hippies, before drugging, robbing and murdering them.
“He despised backpackers, poor young drug addicts. He saw himself as a criminal hero., confided in 2021 the Australian journalist Julie Clarke, who interviewed him. nicknamed the “bikini killer” In 1975 after the body of an American woman clad in a single bikini was discovered on a beach in Pattaya, Thailand, this suave and sophisticated man was linked to more than 20 murders.
Charles Sobhraj’s other nickname, ” The snake “, comes from his ability to assume other identities to escape justice. It became the title of a hit series made by the BBC and Netflix which is inspired by his life.
“Diabolical Murderer”
Arrested in India in 1976, he spent 21 years behind bars, marked by a brief escape in 1986 after drugging prison guards. He was eventually recaptured in the Indian state of Goa.
Released in 1997, he retired to Paris but resurfaced in 2003 in Nepal, where he was spotted in the tourist district of Kathmandu and arrested.
The following year, a court sentenced him to life in prison for the 1975 murder of American tourist Connie Jo Bronzich. Ten years later, he was also found guilty of murdering Ms. Bronzich’s Canadian companion.
Nadine Gires, a Frenchwoman who lived in the same building as Charles Sobhraj in Bangkok, said last year that she initially thought he was a character “cultivated” and impressive. But in the end, “He was not only a con man, a seducer, a thief of tourists, but a diabolical murderer”.
