Charles Sobhraj a Serial Killer Was Expelled From Nepal

By Divya Bhatia Last updated Apr 27, 2023

Charles Sobhraj a Serial Killer Was Expelled From Nepal: The Serpent, a French serial killer who was imprisoned in Nepal for the murders of several Western tourists in the 1970s, has returned to France after being released from prison.

The judge sided with Charles Sobhraj, 78, because of his age and good behavior.

For the 1975 murders of two North Americans, he was incarcerated in Nepal for 19 years.

During his time on the hippie trail in India and Thailand, Sobhraj had preyed primarily on young Western travelers.

On Friday, he was sent packing to France, and he apparently faces a 10-year travel ban on his return to Nepal.

The serial killer, whose story was told in the TV series The Serpent, was serving two consecutive 20-year sentences in Kathmandu for the 1975 murders of an American woman named Connie Jo Bronzich and a Canadian named Laurent Carriere.

The most recent of his two trials resulted in 2014 when he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Carriere.

However, on Wednesday, Sobhraj’s legal team won a petition arguing that he should be granted leniency on his prison term due to health reasons, and the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered his release.

For those who have been good in jail and have served 75% of their sentence, the release may be possible under Nepalese law.

The verdict read, as reported by AFP, “Keeping him in the prison continuously is not in line with the prisoner’s human rights,” with regular treatment for heart disease also contributing to his release. As of 2017, he has recovered from heart surgery.

Before leaving on Friday, Sobhraj told AFP that he felt “great” about being given his freedom but that he would be seeking legal action against the Nepalese government.

It is believed that Sobhraj was responsible for over twenty murders between 1972 and 1982. His victims were either drugged, strangled, beaten, or burned.

Because of his penchant for evading authorities and his preference for preying on young women, he became known as The Serpent or the Bikini Killer. In 2021, it was adapted into a popular BBC and Netflix series about a serial killer.

After spending 20 years in an Indian prison for poisoning a bus full of French tourists, Sobhraj was convicted twice in Kathmandu.

He had a short period of freedom after he had successfully escaped prison by drugging the guards. Later, he claimed he had escaped as a ploy to get his sentence lengthened and avoid extradition to Thailand, where he was wanted for five more murders.

In the mid-1970s, he was wanted by Thai authorities on charges of drugging and killing six women, some of whose bodies were discovered on a beach close to the popular tourist destination of Pattaya.

After being released from prison in India in 1997, Sobhraj moved back to Paris, where he gave paid interviews to the media.

However, a reporter spotted him gambling in a Kathmandu casino in 2003, and he was promptly extradited back to Nepal and arrested for Bronzich’s murder.

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