Kathmandu: The Supreme Court of Nepal has ordered the release of Charles Sobhraj, who is serving life imprisonment in the central jail in Kathmandu.
Sobhraj, infamously known as the Serpent Killer, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Bhaktapur District Court for the murder of American citizen Connie Jo Bronzich and Canadian citizen Laurent Carrière in December 1975.
A joint bench of Supreme Court Justices Sapna Pradhan Malla and Til Prasad Shrestha ordered that Sobhraj, if he doesn’t have to serve jail term in other cases, be sent to his country within the next 15 days. Sobhraj is a French citizen.
Arrested in 2004, he was sent for a life imprisonment of 20 years by the Bhaktapur District Court for murdering American citizen Connie. In 2014, he was again convicted of killing a Canadian citizen Laurent.
Sobhraj had repeatedly filed writ petitions at the Supreme Court, demanding he get the leniency that senior citizens over 70 years get as a release from prison.
While issuing an order on the petition filed on behalf of Sobhraj, the Supreme Court has said that keeping him in jail continuously is against the human rights of the inmate, and the constitution of Nepal.
The court order mentions that Shobhraj, already 75, has been receiving treatment for heart-related ailment and he has served 75 percent of total sentence (19 years).
Sobhraj, who has been implicated in more than 20 killings, served 21 years in prison in India for poisoning a French tourist and killing an Israeli national.
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