Nepal, Dec 23, 2022: Charles Sobhraj, a convicted murderer who according to the police is the reason behind a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, was freed from prison in Nepal on Friday. Prior to his release, he had spent 20 years behind bars according to a Reuters witness.
The notorious killer had been simultaneously serving two sentences, each 20 years, in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu for the 1975 murder of an American woman, Connie Jo Bronzich, and her Canadian backpacker friend, Laurent Carriere.
He had also been convicted in two separate trials – most recently in 2014, when he was sentenced to a high security prison for murdering Carriere.
On Wednesday, however, Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered Sobhraj’s release after his legal team successfully filed a petition arguing that he should be given a concession on his prison term due to health reasons.
A provision in Nepalese law also allows inmates who have showcased good character and completed 75% of their jail term to be released.
“Keeping him in the prison continuously is not in line with the prisoner’s human rights,” the verdict read, as per the AFP, and cites regular treatment for heart disease as another factor in his release. He had undergone heart surgery in 2017.
Sobhraj has been linked to over 20 killings between 1972 and 1982, wherein the victims were drugged, strangled, beaten or burned.
He was also dubbed The Serpent or the Bikini Killer for his knack for deceptive disguises, ability to escape prison and tendency to target young women. It later became the title for a hit BBC and Netflix series about the killer, which was released in 2021.
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