Kathmandu, December 28:

The Supreme Court today said it would issue its verdict in the murder case against Charles Sobhraj on January 13.

A division bench of Justices Min Bahadur Rayamajhi and Kalyan Shrestha has been examining the verdicts of the Patan Appellate Court and the Kathmandu District Court convicting Sobhraj of the murder of Connie Zo Bronzich, an American National, in 1975. The bench is also examining the government’s appeal against giving clean chit to Sobhraj in a fake passport possession case.

The Kathmandu District Court had convicted Sobhraj on August 12, 2004 and the Patan Appellate Court had upheld the trial court’s verdict in 2005 as per Section 13 (3) of the murder chapter of Civil Code, 1963. He has been sentenced to 20-year jail term.

Sobhraj has also been facing a separate charge in the Bhaktapur District Court of killing a Canadian national Laurent Armond Carrierre.

Sobhraj was convicted of killing Bronzich based on circumstantial evidences as Bronzich’s bag was found in Sobhraj’s room in Soaltee Hotel in 1975 and his telephone number was mentioned in Bronzich’s diary. It was held that he had used the same modus operandi in Nepal as in Thailand.