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Charles 'The Serpent' Sobhraj freed from Nepal prison; due to fly to France soon
Charles Sobhraj: Charles Sobhraj, 78, a French national, is suspected of killing more than 20 Western backpackers on the "hippie trail" through Asia.
Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police say is responsible for a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, was released from a Nepal prison on Friday after nearly two decades behind bars.
Sobhraj, 78, a French national, is suspected of killing more than 20 Western backpackers on the "hippie trail" through Asia, usually by drugging their food or drink in the course of robbing them.
Nepal's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered his release from prison, citing his age. He is expected to fly to France later on Friday, his lawyer Gopal Shivakoti Chintan told Reuters.
Wearing a woollen cap and a blue fleece jacket, Sobhraj was escorted to Nepal's immigration department by seven police officers. Earlier on Friday, he was driven out of Katmandu's Central Jail in a cavalcade of police cars, according jail official Ishwari Prasad Pandey.
Sobhraj had been held in a high-security prison in Katmandu since 2003, when he was arrested on charges of murdering American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975.
Dubbed the "bikini killer" in Thailand, and "the serpent", for his evasion of police and use of disguises, his exploits have been the subject of several dramatizations, including a Netflix and BBC joint production released last year.
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He married Nihita Biswas, a Nepali national and a woman 44 years his junior, in 2008.
"I'm happy and have great respect for our judiciary and Supreme court," Sobhraj's mother-in-law Sakuntala Thapa told Reuters partner ANI after news of his release was announced.
Sobhraj denied killing the American woman and his lawyers said the charge against him was based on assumption.
Several years later Sobhraj was also found guilty of killing Bronzich's Canadian friend, Laurent Carriere.
But he was suspected of many more murders, including in Thailand, where police say he allegedly drugged and killed six women in the 1970s, some of whom turned up dead on a beach near the resort of Pattaya.
