Nepal: 'Bikini Killer' Charles Sobhraj released from prison after 19 years
Kathmandu, December 23: French Serial killer Charles Sobhraj was released from Nepal's central prison on Friday. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of the Himalayan State ordered Sobhraj's release on the grounds of old age and declining health. He has been serving a prison sentence in Nepal for the murder of two American tourists since 2003. A court ruled that the 78-year-old man would be released because he had already served 95% of his sentence.
In its ruling released on Wednesday night, the Supreme Court said:
Sobhraj's lawyers have long asked the court to intervene in his amnesty. In various petitions, citing the provisions, they were seeking a waiver of his prison sentence. The court has now ordered the government to arrange for Sobhraj to return to his home country within 15 days.
"Kept in prison here at Central Jail for a long time, the French national Charles Sobhraj has been ordered to be released by the Supreme Court on 21st December. We checked the records of Kathmandu and Bhaktapur District Court and have requested clearance from them over the cases registered against him. We are now preparing to release him from prison and then we will hand him over to the Department of Immigration. We will take him to the department after they finish their preparations," Ishwori Prasad Pandey, the Jailer at Central Jail in Kathmandu told reporters before Sobhraj underwent medical checkups.
The notorious criminal has also appealed to Nepal authorities to let him stay in a hotel and undergo open heart surgery at the Gangalal Heart Hospital in Kathmandu. But the authorities are yet to decide on it.
"I talked to Charles and told him that the media are waiting outside and want to talk. The jail authorities were also willing to let him talk but he (Charles) refused to speak to the media. Also, the talk about his treatment at Gangalal Hospital and his desire to stay at the hotel till the time of deportation is also under consideration and talks are underway with the Home Ministry and Department of Prison Management whose decision also would come tomorrow. All these things would be decided tomorrow (Friday).
The notorious criminal with police cases in different countries was convicted of killing the American citizen Connie Jo Boronzich, 29, and his Canadian girlfriend Laurent Carriere, 26, in 1975.
Arrested on September 19, 2003, Sobhraj's lifetime imprisonment would end on September 18 next year. The French citizen with Vietnamese and Indian parentage committed a string of murders throughout Asia in the 1970s. Sobhraj, who has been implicated in more than 20 killings, served 21 years in India for poisoning a French tourist and killing an Israeli national.
Sobhraj was also awarded a 20-year jail term in 2014 after being found guilty of a second murder, of a Canadian tourist Laurent Carriere, who was killed in 1975. The French serial killer was arrested in 2004 after he was first spotted in a Kathmandu casino.
- PTC NEWS
