Dec. 22 (UPI) — Nepal ordered the release of French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, known as “the Serpent,” on Wednesday after he had been serving a life sentence for the murder of an American tourist.
Sobhraj, who has French citizenship and is of Indian and Vietnamese descent, has been linked to the killings of 20 foreign tourists across Thailand, Nepal and India. He is said to have lured in tourists before drugging and murdering them. A BBC/Netflix series called The Serpent depicted his targeting of western backpackers.
Sobhraj was caught in India and served 20 years in prison from 1976. However, he briefly escaped in 1986 by throwing a party in prison and drugging the guards.
He also had a television, refrigerator and computer in his cell, according to the British writer Farrukh Dhondy, who maintained a decades-long relationship with Mr. Sobhraj and later wrote a book about him.
He was released in 1997 and returned to Paris. But in 2003 he decided to return to Nepal where there was an outstanding arrest warrant.
Sobhraj was arrested not long after and given a life sentence in 2004 for the killing of Connie Jo Bronzich, a 29-year-old American, in 1975.
The Nepalese Supreme Court ordered the 78-year-old to be released on account of his age.
