Thread: Nepal - 1970s serial killer Charles Sobhraj to remain in jail

Serial killer Charles Sobhraj loses appeal in Nepal
31/07/2010

KATHMANDU (AFP) – Nepal's Supreme Court rejected Friday an appeal against a murder conviction by Charles Sobhraj, the alleged serial killer, con man and prison escape artist linked to backpacker deaths in Asia.
Sobhraj, a French citizen of Vietnamese and Indian parentage, is serving a life sentence in Nepal for the murder of American tourist Connie Joe Bronzich in 1975.

Bronzich was stabbed repeatedly before being burnt almost beyond recognition and then dumped on the outskirts of the Nepalese capital. Sobhraj was found guilty of her murder six years ago.


Handcuffed Charles Sobhraj, in a recent photo taken in Nepal.

The 66-year-old, who police describe as a persuasive con man, was dubbed the "bikini killer" by the former Asiaweek magazine because one of his victims was killed in Pattaya in her bikini - and the name stuck. But he was linked to a string of poisonings, vicious killings and robberies of backpackers across Asia in the 1970s. In several murders, he burned his victims, and at least one was believed alive when set afire.

Sobhraj has already served a 21-year sentence in India for culpable homicide, but until 2004 he had never been convicted of murder and his ability to evade justice earned him worldwide notoriety.

Dozens of people packed into the tiny courtroom in downtown Kathmandu to hear Friday's ruling, among them Nihita Biswas, the young Nepalese woman Sobhraj is reported to have married while in jail.

Biswas, 22 and the daughter of one of Sobhraj's lawyers, wept as the verdict was read out and accused the court of being "completely biased."

Sobhraj has always maintained his innocence in the Bronzich case, saying he had never visited Nepal before he was arrested at a Kathmandu casino in 2003.

"In my case, there are no documents and no witnesses (to the crime). I think that the court will have to free me," he said in a 2006 interview.

But Supreme Court judge Ram Kumar Prasad Shaha said that while there was no direct evidence against Sobhraj, the circumstantial evidence was sufficient to justify his 2004 conviction.

Handwriting analysis played a significant part in Sobhraj's conviction, with signatures on two hotel registration cards around the time of the murder said to be his.

His defence team says that the originals were never produced during his trial, only photocopies, and they reacted furiously to Friday's verdict.

"How can you convict a person without any evidence?" his lawyer Shakuntala Thapa -- Biswas's mother -- said after the verdict was read out.

"We provided all the evidence necessary to prove that he is not guilty. They simply did not look at the facts."

Sobhraj has escaped from jails in Greece, Afghanistan and India, where he drugged guards with sedative-laced sweets and walked out of a New Delhi jail.

His talent for disguise, evading justice and breaking out of prisons on two continents earned him another sobriquet, "The Serpent".

He also tried to escape from Kathmandu's central jail in November 2004 but guards uncovered the plot.

Sobhraj may also face charges in Nepal for the murder of Laurent Carriere, a friend of Bronzich.

The bodies of Bronzich and Carriere were found in separate locations but just two days apart, and Carriere had also been repeatedly stabbed and burnt.

Sobhraj faced trial only for Bronzich's murder, but police in Nepal say they are preparing to bring charges against him for Carriere's killing. The reason for the long delay was not immediately clear.

Rajit Bhakta Pradhananga, a lawyer who represented Bronzich's father in court, said he would be pleased with the result.

"The facts were established and the evidence stood up," he said. "All the evidence points to his (Sobhraj's) involvement. I believe this verdict will allow her to rest in peace."

bangkokpost.com

Originally Posted by Bobcock

I read the book about this guy, thinking it was a novel.

envy you your youth

A serpentine journey
2010-07-31

In 1972, the body of an American tourist Jennie Bollivar was found floating in the Gulf of Thailand. She was wearing a simple floral bikini. This was not just another homicide case for with this case emerged one of the most notorious serial ‘killers’ of the century who got international celebrity status.

The press dubbed him ‘Bikini Killer’, later the world found out his real name — Charles Sobhraj.

Bollivar was among Sobhraj’s first victims. It is believed that between 1972 to 1982, this Bikini Killer committed at least 20 murders India, Thailand, Afghanistan, Turkey, Nepal, Iran and Hong Kong.

Wherever he went, he prayed on the unsuspecting. Fluent in several languages, he was a skilled con artist who often targeted young backpackers who were exploring what was known as the ‘Hippie Trail’, which runs through Afghanistan and Nepal into Southeast Asia.

Just business

Sobhraj’s motives for murder were not similar to most other serial killers. He seemed not to be driven by any deep-seated violent impulses or twisted sexual fantasies, but rather by the need to find a ready source of finance for his outlandish lifestyle. This actually served to make him all the scarier. Sobhraj once told journalist Richard Neville in an interview, “If I have ever killed or ordered killings, then it was purely for business reasons; just a job, like a general in an army.”

Suave killer

Born Gurmukh Sobhraj in Saigon, Vietnam to an unwed Vietnamese woman and an Indian tailor, the master criminal started off small. His first foray into the world of crime was by forging cheques from bank account. But he graduated fast, first becoming a smuggler and a con man and then an alleged serial killer, leaving his deadly imprint all over the world.

Suave and a glib talker Sobhraj charmed the typical French or English speaking backpacker, befriending and impressing them as a mysterious and wealthy businessman.

He would con them of their money, jewellery, passport and identity papers, and eventually kill them, often using poison. This style of his earned him yet another name — The Serpent.

His power of persuasion was so strong that he managed to make many of his girlfriends accomplices in his crimes. Marie LeClerc, one of his long-time girlfriends, was involved in more than a few of his swindles. He was married to French woman Chantal Dubois with whom he has a daughter.

He was arrested many times in France, Afghanistan, Greece and India, but managed to either escape or bribe his way out of trouble.

He was finally brought to justice in July, 1976 in Delhi where he had befriended a group of French students and became their unofficial guide. His plan was to drug them and then rob them. But his plan backfired when the pills he offered to some students saying it would ward off dysentery, acted too quickly making those who took fall unconscious right at the dinner table.

A few of the students who had not taken the pill became suspicious, wrestled Sobhraj to the ground and handed him over to the police.

Found guilty of poisoning, Sobhraj was sent to Tihar Jail in Delhi, where he somehow managed to acquire a celebrity status. He was reportedly allowed to keep a television set, order gourmet food and fine wine.

In March 1986, Sobhraj escaped from the high-security Tihar after drugging policemen and fellow convicts. He was recaptured soon after in Goa. In 1997, a Delhi court ruled that Sobhraj had already remained in jail for a ‘period more than the maximum punishment prescribed’ under the law. A photo dated April 1997 showed Sobhraj getting out of a van at the Indira Gandhi International Airport to board a flight to France. After completing his sentence in India’s jails, Sobhraj retired to Paris to spend, as he put it, a tranquil life.

He has since made $15 million on a movie and book deal with French actor-producer Yves Renier. A shrewd customer, he once asked a journalist $ 5,000 to grant an interview.

Destiny Kathmandu

But as they say crime has a way of sneaking up on the perpetrator. Sobhraj came to Nepal, a place which had been a major stop over on his map of crimes.

He was spotted by a journalist and his photos appeared in The Himalayan Times on September 17, 2003. He was arrested from a casino on September 19.

Spring-autumn romance

Confined to a prison cell in Kathmandu, the only news people heard of Sobhraj for a long time was about his trails. But how could someone like Sobhraj, who had been in public eye for so many years and had actually enjoyed all the attention he received, stay out of limelight for long?

In July 2008, he was again in the headlines but this time around it had nothing to do with his crimes. A 20-year-old Nepali girl Nihita Biswas claimed that she and 65-year-old Serpent were in love and planning to get married.

The media went wild with this news and suddenly Biswas was plastered all over the news.

Biswas is the daughter of one of Sobhraj’s lawyers, Shakuntala Thapa. In October that same year it was announced that the couple got married in the jail itself during the Dashain. However, the very next day police dismissed the claim.

Biswas was often heard saying that the couple has plans to get married according to the French law after Sobhraj is released from the prison. However, the Supreme Court quashed their dream when it upheld his life imprisonment on July 30, 2010.

thehimalayantimes.com