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Sobhraj on the plane on the way from Nepal to France
Photo: Atish Patel/AFP
Documentaries have been filmed and books written about him: The French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, convicted in Nepal, is back in his home country.
After his deportation, he flew to Paris via Qatar, his French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre confirmed to the AP news agency.
On the plane, Sobhraj told the journalist from the AFP news agency that he was innocent.
"I'm innocent in all of these cases, okay?" he said accordingly.
His conviction was "based on forged documents," he claimed.
He also said, according to AFP, "I'm fine.
I have many things to do.
I have a lot of people to sue, including the state of Nepal.«
The man is associated with the murder of several tourists in different countries and is therefore also called the "Bikini Killer".
In Nepal, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of two North American tourists.
He has been in prison since 2003, and in 2004 he was first found guilty in court in Nepal.
Overall, he is associated with more than 20 murders.
Sobhraj has been banned from traveling to Nepal for ten years
Sobhraj accused the then Nepalese judge to the AFP reporter of being biased and disregarding legal standards.
His attorney Coutant-Peyre told the AP at the airport that her client's conviction was based on a "fabricated case based on forged documents."
She was "very happy but also very shocked that it took 19 years for him to regain his normal freedom".
After his release, Sobhraj would not be allowed to enter Nepal for ten years, the spokeswoman for the migration authority said.
Nepal's highest court this week ordered the release of the 78-year-old, nicknamed "the snake," a year before the official prison term expired.
The reasons for this were his age, good behavior and deteriorating health, a court spokesman said.
He was nicknamed "snake" for his cunning - this is how he repeatedly eluded the authorities.
Sobhraj is said to have first befriended and built up trust with his later victims before he allegedly drugged, robbed and killed them.
He used the passports of male victims to travel on.
His life story inspired, among other things, a British TV series (»Die Schlange«), which runs on Netflix in Germany, and several books.
kko/AP/dpa/AFP
