Nepal to release French serial killer dubbed the ‘Serpent'

A Frenchman whose life of seduction, murder and escape on the "hippie trail" during the 1970s became the subject for a hit TV series was due to be freed on Thursday after 19 years in prison in Nepal.

Charles Sobhraj, suspected of a string of murders across Asia, is to be released from prison in Nepal after serving 19 years for the murder of an American backpacker in 1975. Prakash Mathema/AFP

Charles Sobhraj, who was nicknamed the "Serpent" at the height of his crimes, was released after his conviction in 2003 for the murder of American tourist Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975.

The Supreme Court in Nepal said his age and worsening heart disease were reasons for his early release in a country where a life term means 20 years in prison.

Sobhraj denies killing Bronzich. His lawyers said the accusation against him was based on assumption.

Several years later Sobhraj was also found guilty of killing Bronzich's Canadian friend, Laurent Carrière.

The Supreme Court ruling said Sobhraj had to leave the country within the next 15 days but did not specify to where.

String of murders

Sobhraj has admitted killing several Western tourists. He is suspected of murdering at least 20 people in Afghanistan, India, Thailand, Turkey, Nepal, Iran and Hong Kong during the 1970s.

However, his conviction in Nepal was the first time he was found guilty in court.

In Thailand, where he was known as the "bikini killer", authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in the mid-1970s on charges of drugging and killing six women.

But he was jailed in India for poisoning a group of French tourists in the capital, New Delhi, in 1976, before he could stand trial on the charges against him in Thailand.

Sobhraj was sent to New Delhi’s maximum-security Tihar prison on suspicion of theft. He escaped in 1986 after drugging prison guards with cookies and cakes laced with sleeping pills.

Days later, police caught him at a restaurant in the Indian beach holiday state of Goa.

He remained in jail for a further 10 years before he was deported without charge to France in 1997.

He resurfaced in September 2003 in Kathmandu where he was arrested in connection with the murders of Bronzich and Carrière, after being spotted at a casino.

Last year, the BBC and Netflix jointly produced a TV series called The Serpent dramatising Sobhraj's crimes. The show depicts his targeting of western backpackers in India and Thailand.