Charles Sobhraj to be released from Nepal prison
2022.12.22 11:56
Charles Sobhraj to be released from Nepal prison
Budrigannews.com – A jail official told Reuters on Thursday that Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police believe was responsible for a series of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, will be released from prison in Nepal on Friday after nearly 20 years behind bars.
On the “hippie trail” through Asia, Sobhraj, 78, a French national, is suspected of killing more than 20 Western backpackers by drugging their food or drink while robbing them.
Due to his age, the Supreme Court of Nepal on Wednesday ordered his release from prison, where he had already served 19 of his 20 years.
Ishwari Prasad Pandey, a jailor at the Central Jail in Kathmandu, stated, “We will release him and take him to the Department of Immigration tomorrow morning.”
According to Pandey, Sobhraj was expected to be released from prison on Thursday, but the pre-release procedures, including a health check, took some time to complete.
After serving 19 years out of a 20-year sentence for the 1975 murder of American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich, he was arrested in 2003 and has been held in the Kathmandu prison.
The accusation against Sobhraj, according to his lawyers, was based on an assumption, and he denied killing the American woman.
He was also found guilty of killing Laurent Carriere, Bronzich’s Canadian friend, a few years later.
However, he was thought to be responsible for numerous additional murders.
In the middle of the 1970s, Thailand, where he was known as the “bikini killer,” issued a warrant for his arrest on charges that he had drugged and killed six women, some of whom were found dead on a beach near the Pattaya resort.
Before he could be tried for the charges against him in Thailand, he was imprisoned in India for poisoning a group of French tourists in the capital, New Delhi, in 1976.
More Migrants waiting at border of Mexico and U.S.
When asked if there were any outstanding warrants for him, Thailand’s justice ministry did not immediately respond.
Sobhraj got away from India’s Tihar prison in 1986 subsequent to medicating jail watches with treats and cakes bound with resting pills.
A few days later, he was apprehended by the police in a restaurant in the Indian state of Goa, a popular destination for beach vacations, where a statue of him with his distinctive peaked cap still stands.
He was imprisoned in India until 1997 when he got back to France.
In 2003, he was captured in Kathmandu, regarding the 1975 homicides of Bronzich and Carriere, in the wake of being spotted at a club.
He has been referred to by associates as a con artist, seducer, robber, and murderer.
The BBC and Netflix (NASDAQ:) last year “The Serpent,” a television drama about his crimes, was jointly produced.
