French Serial Killer Charles ‘The Serpent’ Sobhraj Has Been Released From Prison

Charles Sobhraj sits in an aircraft from Kathmandu to France, on December 23, 2022.

You don’t hear about it often but serial killers being released from prison does indeed happen and it just happened again with Charles ‘The Serpent’ Sobhraj , as he was released from a Nepal jail on December 23rd of this year.

“Sobhraj has been released from the jail. He has been handed over to the immigration department. The officials at the immigration department informed us that he would be deported to France soon, as early as today,” Ishwari Prasad Pandey, an official at Nepal Central prison told CNN.

Sobhraj has been serving a life sentence for the brutal killings of two tourists in 1975, but many of his alleged murders have gone unsolved.

The reason behind his new found freedom? Sobhraj has a heart condition and needs open heart surgery. Born in French-administered Saigon, Vietnam, Sobhraj was first jailed in Paris in 1963 for burglary but went on to be accused of committing crimes in a list of countries: France, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Thailand and Malaysia.

He also escaped from prison in several countries, and his propensity for evading the authorities earned him the nickname “The Serpent”, notes CNN.

Sobhraj has admitted to at least 12 other killings between 1972 and 1976, and hinted at even more to interviewers before retracting his statements once another court case was set to begin against him.

The 2021 BBC/Netflix drama called “The Serpent” is based on the story of Sobhraj’s alleged murders. It tells how for years, he evaded the law across Asia as he allegedly drugged, robbed and murdered backpackers along the so-called “hippie trail” – while former Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg worked with authorities to capture him.

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