Incarcerated in Nepal, the French serial killer Charles Sobhraj will be released

French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, known as "The Serpent" in Kathmandu, Nepal, May 31, 2011. REUTERS - Navesh Chitrakar

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Frenchman Charles Sobhraj, a fearsome serial killer who made headlines in the 1970s when he was guilty of a series of very elaborate murders throughout Asia, has just been released by the Nepalese authorities for health reasons. .

Aged 78 today, Sobhraj is said to have murdered around 20 people before being arrested.

His life was the subject of a series co-aired by Netflix and the BBC last year.

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Swindler, gambler, kleptomaniac and murderer, but also an expert in martial arts, Charles Sobhraj was also fascinated by the nihilistic philosophy.

"

" is a life of novels, a life of death too, which he sows throughout Asia from the 1970s. His plan is simple: in the middle of the hippie era, he attacks Western tourists fascinated by the route to India.

We still do not know the exact number of his victims but we find his trace in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Thailand, where he would have killed more than a dozen people.

He then pretended to be a jeweler, organized parties in his apartment in Bangkok where he took advantage of the naivety of travelers whom he ended up drugging, robbing and murdering.

Linked to more than 20 murders

Suave and sophisticated, he ordered his first murder, that of a young American whose body was found on a beach in a bikini, in 1975. Nicknamed the "

", he was eventually linked to more than 20 murders .

Sobhraj's other nickname, "

", comes from his ability to assume other identities to escape justice.

It became the title of a hit series made by the BBC and Netflix which is inspired by his life.

Poisonous like Tahar Rahim in The Serpent.

It's a miniseries and it's Friday.

pic.twitter.com/epQSON86s3

— Netflix France (@NetflixFR) March 30, 2021

Thanks to false papers, he escapes the police, escapes from prison several times before being taken for good in New Delhi.

He spent more than twenty years behind bars, returned to France, but chose to return to Nepal, where the authorities arrested him in 2004 for the murder of an American woman and her Canadian boyfriend.

He never really answered the question of why he was killing.

But those who have met him agree that he is a brilliant psychopath. 

► To listen: Suicides of serial killers and legal enigmas

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