Charles Sobhraj update: Nepal jail refuses to release the 'bikini killer' despite court order

After Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered Charles Sobhraj’s release, the jail authorities in Kathmandu reportedly refused to release the notorious killer, who is serving two life sentences, each 20 years, in Kathmandu for the murder of two tourists. 

The 78-year-old has been in Kathmandu's Central Jail since 2003.

As per a report in India Today, the jail authorities have claimed that the Supreme Court's order is "vague" and does not mention in which case the killer was released.  

A division bench of judges Sapna Pradhan Malla and Til Prasad Shrestha on Wednesday ordered the release of 78-year-old Sobhraj, who is known as the 'bikini killer'. 

As per the report, Sobhraj’s legal team filed a petition before the court asking for his early release on grounds of his old age. Sobhraj, who has spent 19 years in jail, was ordered to return to France within 15 days. 

Sobhraj was involved in several cases of murder, theft and cheating, as per reports. He was arrested on charges of murdering two American tourists, an American woman, Connie Jo Bronzich, and her Canadian backpacker friend, Laurent Carriere, when he travelled to Nepal in 2003. 

Before he was convicted in Kathmandu, Sobhraj was in jail in India for more than two decades for allegedly poisoning a busload of French tourists. He escaped from the jail after drugging the prison guards.  

Sobhraj, who was accused of killing more than 20 people during the 1970s, would mostly charm hippies from the west. He got the moniker 'bikini killer' after two of his victims were found in bikinis.

He later blamed the authorities for plotting against him and avoiding his extradition to Thailand where he was wanted for five more murders. 

Following his release from India, Sobhraj was arrested for Bronzich's murder after being spotted in a casino in Kathmandu in 2003.

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