‘The Serpent’ serial killer Charles Sobhraj returns to France By Reuters

By Antony Paone

PARIS (Reuters) -Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police consider killed greater than 20 western backpackers on the “hippie path” by way of Asia within the Seventies and Eighties, returned to France on Saturday after practically twenty years behind bars in Nepal.

Nepal’s Supreme Courtroom ordered the discharge of Sobhraj, generally known as the “bikini killer” in Thailand, and ‘The Serpent” for his evasion of police, on Wednesday citing his superior age and well being.

A French nationwide who was born to an Indian father and Vietnamese mom, Sobhraj, 78, landed at Paris’ principal worldwide airport on a industrial flight shortly after 7 a.m.

Sobhraj was met by his lawyer inside a terminal constructing, in accordance with creator Jean-Charles Deniau who wrote ‘Moi, le Serpent” (Me, the Serpent) and was involved with Sobhraj after his arrival.

Border police had been conducting identification checks, French media reported. Sobhraj’s lawyer didn’t reply instantly to a request for remark.

Sobhraj had been held in a high-security jail in Nepal since 2003, when he was arrested on costs of murdering American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975. He was later discovered responsible of killing Bronzich’s Canadian good friend, Laurent Carriere, and had served 19 years out of a 20-year sentence.

However he was suspected of extra murders, together with in Thailand, the place police say he killed six girls within the Seventies, a few of whom turned up useless on a seashore close to the resort of Pattaya.

He was jailed in India for poisoning a bunch of French vacationers within the capital, New Delhi, in 1976, earlier than he might stand trial on the fees in opposition to him in Thailand.

Sobhraj advised French information company AFP on the flight out of Nepal that he was not responsible of murdering Bronzich and Carriere and that the case in opposition to him was constructed on faux paperwork.

“I’ve quite a bit to do. I’ve to sue lots of people,” AFP quoted Sobhraj as saying.

Associates have beforehand described Sobhraj, 78, as a con artist, a seducer, a robber and a assassin.

In 2021, the BBC and Netflix (NASDAQ:) produced a drama collection primarily based on the story of Sobhraj’s alleged killings.

France’s inside and justice ministries didn’t reply to Reuters questions on whether or not Sobhraj may face prison costs in France. The statute of limitations for many critical crimes in France is 20 years.