Charles Sobhraj

French national suspected of murdering western backpackers on the hippie trail in 1970s and 80s.

Sobhraj was eventually released in 1997, when he returned to France, but he later decided to risk returning to Nepal, believing he was safe from the authorities. He was said to have drugged, robbed and then killed about 20 western backpackers, but he was was convicted of only three of the murders. Sohbraj had already served a two-decade prison sentence in India for the poisoning and killing of a French tourist, Jean-Luc Solomon. She said she would remain in Nepal and join Sobhraj later, as she still had court cases going on. “Sobhraj has heart issues and he wants to do a health check-up before he flys out,” said Siwakoti. Sobhraj was known to many as a seductive and ruthless con-artist and murderer.

The confessed murderer has walked free from prison in Nepal after the country's supreme court ordered his release.

Thailand issued a warrant for the arrest of Sobhraj in the 1970s on charges of drugging and killing six women, all wearing bikinis, but he was jailed in India before he could stand trial on those charges. [serving two life sentences](https://news.sky.com/story/tourist-killer-sentenced-to-second-life-term-10389218) in [Nepal](https://news.sky.com/topic/nepal-6414) for the murders of Connie Jo Bronzich and Laurent Carriere in 1975. The French murderer known as "The Serpent" has been freed from prison in Nepal after serving most of his sentence for the murders of American and Canadian backpackers.

Charles Sobhraj and his crimes were recently the subject of a Netflix and BBC series titled The Serpent.

The order also stipulates that he has to leave the country within 15 days. Sobhraj was driven out of Central Jail in Kathmandu on Friday (23 December) in a heavily guarded police convoy to the department of immigration, where he will wait for his travel documents to be prepared. [Hindustan Times](https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/bikini-killer-charles-sobhraj-has-successful-heart-surgery/story-PIoNJjkDplhpLzWI6qOHHI.html) reported in 2017 that Biswas donated blood to Sobhraj when he underwent heart surgery at a Kathmandu hospital. Biswas was the first person to get voted out in her season. [Times of India](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/it-was-love-at-first-sight-with-nihita-sobhraj/articleshow/3195012.cms) that Sobhraj was innocent, stating: “He is a good man, I have seen the way he cares for his family. In a 2008 interview, Sobhraj said that it was love at first sight for the two of them. Very little is publicly known about Compagnon and her daughter with Sobhraj after they parted ways. Leclerc was also sentenced to life in prison after the attempted drugging and robbery of a group of students in 1976, however this was later overturned following a terminal ovarian cancer diagnosis. She was a medical secretary from Quebec, Canada, and became an accomplice in Sobhraj’s drugging and murder spree. Sobhraj was sentenced to 12 years in prison - however, his prison sentence in India was set to end before the 20 year Thai statute of limitations expired, meaning that he would have been extradited and almost certainly executed for murder in Thailand. Throughout his childhood, Sobhraj moved back and forth between Southeast Asia and France. In the show, Sobhraj was portrayed by Tahar Rahim (The Eddy, The Looming Tower).

Charles Sobhraj, a French serial killer responsible for a string of murders across Asia in the 1970s, has been released after spending almost 20 years in a ...

He is pictured being led to a Thai jail in 1977 A decade later he was also found guilty of killing Bronzich's Canadian companion Laurent Carrière. He was eventually linked to more than 20 killings. It is believed he committed his first murder in 1975, that of a 21-year-old woman from Seattle called Teresa Knowlton. A decade later he was also found guilty of killing Bronzich's Canadian companion Laurent Carrière, right He is pictured being escorted to a Nepal court in May 2014 Nepal's supreme court ruled Sobhraj, 78, who has been in prison in the Himalayan republic since 2003 for murdering two North American tourists, should be freed on health grounds. the return to his country within 15 days.' When the first few students began falling where they stood, the others became alarmed and called the police. The two are pictured in New Delhi, India in 1986 Sobhraj's wife Nihita Biswas walks outside the department of immigration as Sobhraj is taken inside after his release from jail. He waited there for his travel documents to be prepared

Charles Sobhraj, convicted for killing two tourists in 1975, was suspected of several murders in Asia.

It later became the title for a hit BBC and Netflix series about the killer, which was released in 2021. During that time, he briefly managed to escape from prison by drugging the prison guards. He had heart surgery in 2017.

Sobhraj, labelled 'The Bikini Killer' and 'The Serpent', left for Paris after clearing immigration.

He has also in the past broken out of Delhi’s highly secured Tihar jail by poisoning guards and was notorious for his apparent flamboyant lifestyle. Sobhraj’s release comes as a shock to many as he had gained infamy after police accused him of a string of murders in the Seventies and Eighties. [Charles Sobhraj](/news/ap-kathmandu-nepal-french-supreme-court-b2249689.html), accused of killing a number of western tourists in [Asia](/topic/asia) and commonly referred to as the “bikini killer”, walked free from a [Nepal](/topic/nepal) jail on Friday.

Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police believe murdered more than 20 western backpackers on the "hippie trail" through Asia in the 1970s and 1980s, ...

He was later found guilty of killing Bronzich's Canadian friend, Laurent Carriere, and had served 19 years out of a 20-year sentence. Asked what his next steps would be, she said: "He will file a legal complaint against Nepal because the whole case against him was fabricated." Register for free to Reuters and know the full story Sobhraj told French news agency AFP on the flight out of Nepal that he was not guilty of murdering Bronzich and Carriere. 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. Nepal's Supreme Court ordered the release of Sobhraj, known as the "bikini killer" in Thailand, and 'The Serpent" for his evasion of police, on Wednesday citing his advanced age and health.

French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, responsible for multiple murders in the 1970s across Asia, arrived in France on Saturday after almost 20 years in ...

He was recaptured in the Indian coastal state of Goa. A decade later, he was also found guilty of killing Bronzich's Canadian companion. On Friday, he was released and put on a flight at Kathmandu airport to take him to Paris via Doha. I am innocent. I have to sue a lot of people. I have a lot to do.

PARIS (Reuters) -Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police believe murdered more than 20 western backpackers on the "hippie trail" through Asia i...

I have to sue a lot of people,” AFP quoted Sobhraj as saying. He was later found guilty of killing Bronzich’s Canadian friend, Laurent Carriere, and had served 19 years out of a 20-year sentence. “I have a lot to do.

The French serial killer released from a life sentence in Nepal on health grounds flew back to Paris yesterday vowing to sue his jailers.Charles Sobhraj, 78 ...

I have to sue a lot of people, including the state of Nepal.” I have a lot to do. Despite having been convicted of the murders of two tourists in Nepal, and being suspected of at least six other killings, he disputed being a serial killer and claimed to have been the victim of a

Sobhraj arrives in Paris on commercial flight after release from Nepalese prison on health grounds.

He was later found guilty of killing Bronzich’s Canadian friend, Laurent Carriere, and had served 19 years of a 20-year sentence. Sobhraj told the French news agency Agence-France Presse on the flight out of Nepal that he was not guilty of murdering Bronzich and Carriere and that the case against him was built on fake documents. Sobhraj, who was given his nickname for his evasion of police, had been held in a high-security prison in Nepal since 2003, when he was arrested on charges of murdering the American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975.

Speaking to French media on his arrival in Paris, Sobhraj said that he has to "sue a lot of people," claiming that he was not guilty of murder.

The statute of limitations for most serious crimes in France is 20 years. [The Serpent: The story of the real-life hippie trail killer Charles Sobhraj](https://news.sky.com/story/the-serpent-the-story-of-the-real-life-hippie-trail-killer-charles-sobhraj-12185697) [French killer Charles Sobhraj freed from jail in Nepal](https://news.sky.com/story/french-killer-charles-sobhraj-known-as-the-serpent-freed-from-jail-in-nepal-12773538) Speaking to French media on his arrival in Paris, Sobhraj said that he has to "sue a lot of people," claiming that he was not guilty of murder.

Serial killer Charles Sobhraj is believed to have killed at least 24 people in Afghanistan, India, Thailand, Turkey, Nepal, Iran and Hong Kong during the ...

The "serpent" nickname stems from his reputation as a disguise and escape artist. Life sentences in Nepal are 20 years. He resurfaced in 2003 in Kathmandu, and was convicted the following year for the murders of American and Canadian backpackers in Nepal. [BBC](https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/bbc) and [Netflix](https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/netflix) called The Serpent. The 78-year-old French citizen had been serving time for the deaths of American and Canadian backpackers in the 1970s. [released from a life sentence in a Nepal prison.](https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/breaking-the-serpent-serial-killer-28802354)