Nepal’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of Charles Sobhraj, the French serial killer who inspired the Netflix drama ‘Snake’. The Frenchman was responsible for murders in different Asian countries in the 1970s.

Nepal’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of Charles Sobhraj, the French serial killer who inspired the Netflix drama ‘Snake’. The Frenchman was responsible for murders in different Asian countries in the 1970s.

The Nepalese court ruled that Sobhraj, 78, should be released on health grounds. The Frenchman has been imprisoned in the country since 2003, convicted of murdering two American tourists.

“Detaining one’s prisoner would not be consistent with the prisoner’s human rights,” the court ruling reads. “If there are no other proceedings pending against him that keep him in detention, this court today orders his release and his return to his country within a fortnight.”

After a troubled childhood and several stints in France for petty crimes, Sobhraj began traveling the world in the early 1970s and ended up in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok.

His modus operandi was to seduce and befriend his victims, often European and North American backpackers seeking a spiritual journey. Then he drugged them, robbed them and killed them.

The first murder in which he participated dates back to 1975, when the body of a young American woman was found on a beach in Pattaya wearing only her bikini.

soft and refined

Described as gentle and sophisticated, Sobhraj has been linked to around 20 murders in different countries in Asia. Some of his victims were strangled, beaten or burned.

When killing men, the serial killer often appropriated the victim’s passport and used it to reach his next destination.

Sobhraj’s nickname, “the serpent”, comes from his ability to assume other identities to escape justice.

The story caught the attention of TV producers and in 2021 became a hit series made in partnership between the BBC and Netflix.

Prison entries and exits

The French assassin was arrested in India in 1976 after the poisoning death of a French tourist in a Delhi hotel, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison for murder.

In 1986 he escaped from the penitentiary and was later arrested again in the Indian state of Goa.

Released in 1997, he retired to Paris, but resurfaced in 2003 in Nepal, where he was seen in the tourist district of Kathmandu and arrested. The following year, a court sentenced him to life in prison for killing American tourist Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975.

Ten years later, he was also found guilty of murdering fellow Canadian Bronzich.

(With information from AFP)