Notorious French criminal Charles Sobhraj, 65, who is serving a 20 year sentence in a Kathmandu jail, has accused jail authorities of denying him medical treatment for a serious dental ailment.
On Tuesday, based on Sobhraj's complaint forwarded by the French embassy in Kathmandu, a team
from the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) visited the jail to verify the allegation.
"He has been suffering from tooth problems for the past three months. But the jail authorities have denied him any medical attention," Shakuntala Thapa, Sobhraj's counsel told Hindustan Times.
Terming it as a gross human rights violation, she alleged that despite agreeing to bear all expenses for the treatment, the jail authorities refused to take Sobhraj out of the jail for treatment.
"At present he is unable to consume any solid food and needs to get a root canal treatment soon before the infection spreads," Thapa said.
Sobhraj is accused of murdering an Amercian backpacker in Kathmandu in 1975. He was arrested while on a visit to Nepal in 2003 and sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court.
A petition challenging the order is pending in Supreme Court and the final verdict is likely on July 30. Sobhraj had failed to turn up in court earlier this month due to unspecified medical reasons.