![]() ![]() Sobhraj, a 78-year-old French citizen, had been serving time for the deaths of American and Canadian backpackers in Nepal in 1975, but was released Friday for health and other reasons. "I'm fine, I'm glad" to be in France, he told The Associated Press in a brief phone conversation after arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. He has in the past admitted to killing Western tourists around Asia. It was the latest twist in a dramatic life trajectory depicted in a series co-produced by the BBC and Netflix called "The Serpent," which aired last year. The Serpent is available to stream now on BBC iPlayer and Netflix.Convicted killer Charles Sobhraj, suspected in the deaths of at least 20 tourists around Asia in the 1970s, arrived in Paris as a free man Saturday after being released from a life sentence in a Nepal prison. Sobhraj reportedly told the Associated Foreign Press ahead of his release that he felt "great" about the parole, and that he aimed to sue the Nepalese government. The BBC reported that he was deported to France on Wednesday, December 21. ![]() Sobhraj is now 78 years old and was released after 19 years in prison in Nepal in December 2022 after the nation's Supreme Court ruled that he deserved parole for good behaviour and on account of his age. You're always trying to find a connection to your character, something that you have inside of you to make it more genuine. I tried, but I couldn't catch him because he has no empathy. He echoed that sentiment during his conversation with Mulligan for Interview Magazine: "It was very hard for me to catch his spirit. I try to find bridges psychologically between me and him, but here there was nothing." Rahim told The Guardian: "Usually I start building a character from the inside. They could have easily belonged to others." "Inside his Bangkok apartment, we found a stack of passports and driver's permits. "Personally, I think he might have killed many more," Knippenberg said (via The Independent). He's been linked to 12, but some believe that number could be as high as 24. ![]() It's still not known how many people Sobhraj murdered. She went on to compete in the fifth series of Indian reality show Bigg Boss. In 2008, a 64-year-old Sobhraj married 20-year-old Nihita Biswas, who supposedly went to visit him in prison to act as an interpreter for Sobhraj's French lawyer. According to Desnoyers, she kept in regular contact with him and was mulling over emigrating so that she could be with him. She told a journalist from India Todayin 1995, when Sobhraj was approaching the end of a prison sentence in the country, that he was "a very dear friend". On the eve of his wedding to Compagnon, Chantal Desnoyers was allegedly giving birth to their second child. The Telegraph reported that prior to his relationship with Compagnon, Sobhraj had been involved with another woman who was also called Chantal, with whom he had two children. In 2010, Nepal's Supreme Court rejected another appeal made by Sobhraj and in 2014, he received a second life sentence for the murder of Laurent Ormond Carriere, a backpacker from Canada. Sobhraj's wife Chantal Compagnon – renamed Juliette in the series – a French woman with whom he had a daughter, brought a case against the French government to the European Court of Human Rights arguing that he had unlawfully been offered no legal assistance, but his sentence was confirmed by the Nepalese appeals court in 2005. "I want our audience to find Sobhraj the way others found him." "We wanted instead to encourage and record the testimonies of others who were there. Speaking to the BBC, writer Richard Warlow said: "Sobhraj had been at the wheel of his own story for many years, spinning his yarns to the enthralled and gullible, his ability to mesmerise never waning, it seems. He had got away with so much for so long that he believed he was invincible." "It was all so easy for him," said Knippenberg (via The Independent). ![]() In 2004, he was sentenced to life in prison, in large part due to the evidence provided by Dutch diplomat-turned-investigator Herman Knippenberg. In a move that smacks of arrogance, Sobhraj travelled back to Kathmandu, Nepal in 2003 where he was recognised and arrested at a casino for the murder of North American backpacker Connie Bronzich in 1975. Some speculated that he had been killed by Sobhraj, according to The Guardian, but he has denied that claim. Chowdhury was never arrested and his whereabouts remain unknown following just one sighting in Germany in late 1976. ![]()
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