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Charles Sobhraj, a 78-year-old French serial killer who has been in a Nepal prison since 2003 for killing two North American tourists in the Himalayas, is to be released on the grounds of his age and health, the country’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. He is also to be deported within 15 days of his release.
“Keeping him in the prison continuously is not in line with the prisoner’s human rights,” the court said in a verdict obtained by the AFP.
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Sobhraj was serving a 21-year prison sentence in Nepal for the murder of two backpackers Connie Jo Boronzich, 29, and Laurent Carrière, 26, in 1975. While in prison, he was being treated for heart disease and underwent a cardiac operation in 2017.
The serial killer was the subject of a dramatized Netflix series titled The Serpent which was released in April 2021. The eight-part drama focused on Sobhraj’s murders in Thailand in the ’70s.
Authorities estimate that he has killed at least 20 people across Asia, mostly backpackers. He was most active in the 1970s. Sobhraj also spent 20 years in an Indian prison before being released and returning to France. He later traveled to Nepal, where he was arrested.