Nepal’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who robbed and killed backpackers who ventured through Asia in the 1970s. from Netflix inspired by his story last year, “The Paradise and the Serpent”.
Sobhraj had been detained in the Asian country since 2003, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a tourist in 1975. The Nepalese Supreme Court ordered his release on health grounds – the serial killer is now 78 years old.
“Keeping him in prison continuously is not in line with his human rights. If there is no other case pending against him that justifies keeping him in prison, this court orders his release today and […] to return to his country within 15 days,” the Supreme Court said in the text of the verdict.
Sobhraj, who was born in Vietnam, began traveling the world in the early 1970s. He took up residence in the capital of Thailand, where he performed as a jewelry merchant. According to reports, he would befriend his victims — usually Western backpackers drawn to the mystique of the Indian subcontinent — before drugging, robbing and killing them.
When the victim was a man, the serial killer still took the opportunity to use his passport to proceed to the next destination — his nickname, “Snake”, comes from this ability to assume new identities.
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