KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 21
The Supreme Court today ordered the government to release murder convict Charles Sobhraj, currently lodged at the Central Jail in Sundhara, from prison.
A division bench of Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Tilprasad Shrestha issued the order in response to the habeas corpus petition filed by Sobhraj. He had sought remission of his jail sentence on grounds of being a senior citizen.
The court also ordered the government to make arrangements for repatriating Sobhraj to his home country within 15 days unless he had to be kept in jail for some other offence.
The 78-year-old Frenchman, who earned the epithet 'bikini killer', was convicted in two murder cases in Nepal and has been in prison since 2003. He was arrested by Nepal Police from Casino Royale a day after The Himalayan Times carried a frontpage scoop on 17 September 2003 headlined 'The Serpent living incognito in Thamel'.
The SC stated in its order that on 22 March 2018, the Bhaktapur District Court, which convicted Sobhraj, issued an amended arrest letter wherein the court said he should remain in prison till18 September 2023.
The court observed that keeping Sobhraj continuously in jail was against precedents set by the court in two cases -- Fenwick Macintosh versus the Government of Nepal and Gopal Siwakoti Chintan versus the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.
Sobhraj had filed a habeas corpus petition saying that he qualified for remission of sentence as he was over 70 and was suffering from heart ailment.
The SC observed that the Patan High Court had issued an order to the government telling it to decide whether or not sentence waiver rules applied to Sobhraj, who was 74 years old and was suffering from a heart disease. The SC also observed it had ordered the home ministry to decide Sobhraj's case keeping in mind his age and ailment, but the government had yet to take a decision.
The SC said since the Central Jail had stated in its letter that Sobhraj did not demonstrate any negative behaviour or conduct and it had recommended sentence waiver for him twice, it could not be concluded that he was not an inmate with good conduct.
The SC observed that the Patan High Court's order that Sobhraj should not be kept in solitary confinement at the Central Jail had also remained unimplemented, calling it a violation of theUN Standard for the Treatment of Prisoners.
The court observed that the refusal by the government to grant legal rights to Sobhraj violated his right to live and right against solitary confinement.
The court said in accordance with Prison Regulations, prisoners above the age of 65 years were entitled to up to 75 per cent waiver of jail term for good conduct or being bedridden with an incurable disease. The bench also observed that the waiver rules also applied to foreigners.
It said Sobhraj had already served 95 per cent of his 20-year jail sentence.
Earlier, the jail administrator had argued that remission of Sobhraj's jail sentence on grounds of being a senior citizen was not valid because the Senior Citizens Act stipulated in its explanation section that its provisions would apply only to Nepali citizens.
In 2014, Sobhraj was sentenced to 20 years in jail for the 1975 murder of Canadian tourist Laurent Carriere. In 2004, he was sentenced to a life term for murdering American tourist Connie Jo Bronzich.
Senior Advocates Lokbhakta Rana and Rambandhu Sharma and advocates Shakuntala Thapa and Nihita Biswas pleaded on behalf of Sobhraj.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 22, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
