“Serpent” on the loose: the court released the French serial killer from prison

The famous criminal was taken pity on due to his age and poor health

Nepal’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled the release from prison of Charles Sobraj of the notorious French serial killer whose story inspired the award-winning television series The Serpent.

According to court spokesman Bimal Paudel, the court ruled based on the age and health of the 78-year-old prisoner.

According to CNN, Charles Sobraj was serving a life sentence in a prison in the Kathmandu suburb of Bhaktapur for killing two tourists in 1975, but many of his alleged murders remain unsolved.

The spokesman added that a two-judge panel of the Supreme Court ordered the government to immediately release him and deport him to “his country” within 15 days.

The court stated that Sobraj was suffering from heart disease and needed surgery.

Born in French-administered Saigon, Vietnam, Sobhraj was first imprisoned in Paris in 1963 for burglary, but was subsequently charged with crimes in a number of countries: France, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal , India, Thailand and Malaysia.

He has also escaped prisons in several countries, and his penchant for evading authorities has earned him the nickname “The Serpent”. He was also known as the “Bikini Killer”.

Sobraj was imprisoned in India from 1976 to 1997. After his release he lived in Paris. Sobraj then returned to Nepal in 2003 where he was arrested, tried and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Reportedly, unlike many serial killers, “The Serpent” did not commit his murders due to uncontrollable, deep-rooted aggressive impulses, more seen as a “by-product” of his lifestyle. At the same time, it is widely believed that he suffers from antisocial personality disorder or a form of psychopathy. It is claimed that the perpetrator had a hatred for hippies, and many of his murders reflected this.

Sobraj used his notoriety to the fullest, receiving money for interviews and film rights. He has been the subject of several biographies, three documentaries, a Bollywood film called Main Aur Charles, and the eight-episode BBC drama series 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 confessions ahead of further legal proceedings. His true number of victims is unknown.

In 2014, a Nepalese court found Sobhraj guilty of the 1975 murder of Canadian tourist Laurent Career and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

The 2021 BBC/Netflix drama The Serpent is based on the story of Sobraj’s alleged murders. It tells how for years he evaded the law across Asia as he allegedly drugged, robbed and murdered tourists along the so-called “hippie trail” while former Dutch diplomat Hermann Knippenberg worked with the authorities to catch him. .