
Sohbraj had already served a two-decade prison sentence in India for the poisoning and killing of a French tourist, Jean-Luc Solomon. In Thailand, he was accused of killing six travellers and there was a decades-long warrant for his arrest, but he was never extradited to the country to face the charges. He was said to have drugged, robbed and then killed about 20 western backpackers, but he was was convicted of only three of the murders.
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Sobhraj’s life was one of notoriety, dramatised in a number of TV documentaries and series, most recently in the BBC/Netflix drama The Serpent. “We are worried about his safety in Nepal, hospitals here are not secure, so we want to get him to a hospital in France as soon as possible.”

She said she would remain in Nepal and join Sobhraj later, as she still had court cases going on. When his release order came though we all celebrated,” she said. Standing outside the immigration detention centre where Sobhraj was taken after his release, Biswas said she had still not been able to see her husband. The pair got married in jail and Biswas acted as his lawyer, always maintaining his innocence. In 2008, Sobhraj, then 64, had met lawyer Nihita Biswas, 21, when she acted as an interpreter for him in the prison. Photograph: Atish Patel/AFP/Getty Imagesĭuring his time in jail in Nepal, Sobhraj had raised eyebrows by marrying a Nepalese woman 40 years his junior.
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He said the Nepalese government had been “unwilling to release him at any cost” and had attempted to dispute Sobhraj’s good behaviour in prison, but that was overruled by the courts, who approved his petition.įrench serial killer Charles Sobhraj sits in an aircraft from Kathmandu to France, on December 23, 2022. Siwakoti described Sobhraj’s physical condition as “frail” but said he was mentally capable.

“Sobhraj has heart issues and he wants to do a health check-up before he flys out,” said Siwakoti. Sohbraj will be extradited back to France on Friday evening, said the lawyer Gopal Siwakoti, who has been providing legal support on the case. He was linked to the deaths of at least 20 western travellers in Thailand, India and Nepal during the 1970s and 80s but became known as “the serpent” for his charm and slippery ability to evade arrest.

Sobhraj was known to many as a seductive and ruthless con-artist and murderer. “I have a book and a documentary coming soon.” “I feel great, I am flying to Paris,” Sohbraj said over the phone, his spirits appearing high. Sobhraj, who is a French citizen of Indian and Vietnamese descent, walked out of a high security jail in Kathmandu on Friday morning, after a court ruling this week that ordered his release on the grounds he had served 75% of his sentence and his health was ailing.
