The Serpent, a French serial murderer convicted of killing tourists in Asia in the 1970s, was released from a Nepalese prison.
Charles Sobhraj, 78, was discharged for his age and good behavior.
He was imprisoned in Nepal for killing two Americans in 1975.
Sobhraj, whose narrative was told in The Serpent, preyed on Western hippies in India and Thailand.
The renowned killer was serving two 20-year sentences in Kathmandu for the 1975 murders of Connie Jo Bronzich and Laurent Carriere.
He was convicted of murdering Carriere in two separate trials, most recently in 2014.
Wednesday, Nepal’s Supreme Court authorized Sobhraj’s release after his legal team petitioned for a health-related prison term reduction.
A Nepalese legislation permits inmates with excellent character and 75% of their sentence to be released.
“Keeping him in prison continuously is not in line with the prisoner’s human rights,” the judgement says, citing regular heart disease medication as another cause in his release. 2017 cardiac surgery.
Sobhraj is accused of drugging, strangling, beating, or burning more than 20 people between 1972 and 1982.
He was nicknamed The Serpent or the Bikini Killer for his false disguises, prison escapes, and targeting of young ladies. A popular BBC and Netflix series about the killer was released in 2021.
Sobhraj spent 20 years in prison in India for poisoning a busload of French tourists before his two convictions in Kathmandu.
He escaped prison by drugging the guards. Later, he claimed the escape was a plan to get his sentence prolonged and avoid deportation to Thailand for five more killings.
In the mid-1970s, Thai authorities wanted him for drugging and killing six women, some of whom were found dead on a beach near Pattaya.
Sobhraj returned to France after his 1997 release from India and did paid interviews.
At 2003, a reporter discovered him in a Kathmandu casino and arrested him for Bronzich’s murder.
