Charles Sobhraj, a French serial murderer whose spate of killings across Asia during the 1970s were depicted in the Netflix series The Serpent, was still incarcerated on Thursday after a Nepali court ordered his parole on medical reasons.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court in Kathmandu issued a decision ordering the immediate release and 15-day deportation of Sobhraj, 78, who has been imprisoned in the Himalayan country since 2003 for two murders that occurred decades earlier.
After serving 19 years of a 20-year sentence in prison, the Nepalese Supreme Court on Wednesday issued an order for his release, citing his advanced age.
Ishwari Prasad Pandey, a jailor at the Central Jail in Kathmandu, stated, “We will release him and take him to the Department of Immigration tomorrow morning.
According to Pandey, Sobhraj was supposed to be released from prison on Thursday but it took some time to finish the pre-release procedures, which included a health check-up.
His release was in accordance with the statute that permits bedridden offenders who have completed three-quarters of their term to be released on humanitarian grounds, according to the court’s ruling. He underwent open heart surgery in 2017, and the decision supported his release.
Despite initial indications that he will soon be released from prison, Sobhraj is anticipated to return to France but won’t be released until Friday, according to his lawyer.
“He is staying in the Central Jail again today. He will be sent to the immigration department tomorrow,” his lawyer, Gopal Shiwakoti Chintan, briefed media on Thursday. Sobhraj was supposed to be released from prison on Thursday, but Pandey claimed it took some time to finish the pre-release procedures, which included a health check-up.
He had completed 19 years of a 20-year sentence when he was arrested in 2003 on suspicion of killing American hiker Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975. He has been detained in the Kathmandu prison ever since.
Sobhraj denied killing the American woman, and his attorneys claimed the accusation was merely presumptive.
Later on, he was also convicted guilty of the murder of Laurent Carriere, a Canadian acquaintance of Bronzich.
