Charles “The Serpent” Sobhraj, a French serial killer, has been freed from a Nepali prison
On Friday, infamous French serial killer Charles Sobhraj was released from a Nepali prison. Sobhraj’s story was the basis for the Emmy-nominated TV series “The Serpent.”
The jail has granted Sobhraj his release. According to Ishwari Prasad Pandey, an official at Nepal Central Prison, “the officials at the immigration department notified us that he would be deported to France shortly, as early as today.”
Sobhraj, now 78 years old, was serving a life sentence in Nepal for the 1975 killings of two foreign tourists, but many other cases involving him are still open and have not been resolved.
On Wednesday, the highest court in Nepal approved his release, citing his advanced age and poor health as justification. The court determined he has cardiac problems and must undergo open-heart surgery.
As of this writing on Friday, local authorities had already arranged for Sobhraj’s quick deportation.
We are working on gathering all the necessary travel documents to deport Sobhraj to France,” the acting Director General of Nepal’s immigration department Pradarshani Kumari told “it could happen today (Friday), it might take a few days.”
“The court’s order is to send him to his home country within 15 days. We are working to deport him keeping that timeframe in mind. He will remain under the supervision of Nepal’s government until he flies out. We are working with the home ministry on his safety,” she said.
An official has stated that regular communication is maintained between the department and the French embassy in Kathmandu.
Sobhraj, who was born in French Saigon, Vietnam, was first imprisoned in 1963 for burglary in the French capital, and he has since been accused of criminal activity in a number of other countries, including the Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Thailand, and Malaysia.
Furthermore, he managed to get away from jail authorities in a number of other nations, leading to him being dubbed “The Serpent.”
According to his biographers, Sobhraj eventually confessed to at least 12 murders between 1972 and 1976 and hinted at others to interviewers before retracting the confessions in anticipation of future court trials. Nobody knows how many people he has killed.
For the murder of Canadian tourist Laurent Carrière in 1975, a Nepali court found Sobhraj guilty in 2014 and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.