Nepal’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of Charles Sobhraj, infamously known as the serpent. The French national was behind bars for the murder of two US tourists. Read to know more.
Charles Sobhraj is to be released from jail
As per a media report, the Nepalese Supreme court ordered the release of Charles ‘The Serpent’ Sobhraj, a French national serial killer and con man. The 78-year-old was serving prison time but he will be deported to France if there are no pending cases against him. The move comes after Sobhraj filed a petition for early release based on health grounds. As per reports, the French embassy earlier approached the Nepalese government.
Ram Bandhu, the serial killer’s lawyer revealed his client is being freed after spending two decades in jail. He will be walking out of Kathmandu’s high-security prison at 10 am local time. He will then be taken for immigration documentation before being sent to France.
Who is Charles Sobhraj, ‘The Serpent’?
Charles Sobhraj or the serpent was born to a Vietnamese shop employee and an Indian trader in April 1944 in French-occupied Saigon, Vietnam. His associates have described him as a conman, thief, murderer, and seducer. Additionally, some reports reveal his parents were unmarried and he was never acknowledged as a son by his father. He and his mother later went to France where she married a Frenchman. However, Sobhraj did not fit in and was resenting his father for abandonment. Moreover, since childhood, he has been in and out of prison for several petty crimes.
“Rejection by his father was an act which caused considerable resentment and bitterness in the young Sobhraj: ‘I will make you regret that you have missed your father’s duty,’ he confided in his diary,” revealed a 2004 BBC article. He earned his nickname, “The Serpent” after multiple arrests across the world. Moreover, he was able to bribe or evade his way out or get preferential treatment. In 1976, he was arrested in India after he and three other accomplices were convicted for convincing French students to hire them as their guides. They later gave them poison pills. He was convicted and sent to prison for 21 years.
More on his arrest
Sobhraj escaped from Tihar jail, a high-security prison after offering spiked sweets to his prison guards in the guise of his “birthday” in 1986. He was caught after three weeks and sent to jail until 1997. In 2003, he was arrested in a casino in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, and convicted for the murder of Connie Jo Bronzich, an American backpacker in 1975. He was also convicted of killing Laurent Carriere, Bronzich’s Canadian friend.
“Keeping him in the prison continuously is not in line with the prisoner’s human rights,” stated the verdict. “If there are not any other pending cases against him to keep him in the prison. This court orders his release by today and his return to his country within 15 days. The regulation on prison management envisions a waiver of up to 75 percent of the jail term of the prisoners over 65 years of age and with good conduct,” it added.