Kathmandu judges postpone Bikini Killer appeal decision

Nepal’s Supreme Court has put off ruling on the appeal of French so-called “Bikini Killer” Charles Sobhraj, who is serving a life sentence for the 1975 murder of an American tourist.

Reuters

Sobhraj, who was given his nickname because several of his presumed victims were found in bikinis, has already served 21 years in India for about a dozen other murders.

The two Nepali judges postponed a decision due Wednesday because they said they have not had time to examine documents submitted in the last stages of the appeal.

Nihita Biswas, a 21-year-old Nepali who married Sobhraj - now 65 - in prison two years ago, said that she was “really disappointed” by the postponement.

Sobhraj claims not to have been in Kathmandu at the time his presumed victim Connie Joe Bronzich died. She was stabbed repeatedly and her body was found burned beyond recognition and dumped on the outskirts of the city.

Sobhraj was born to Vietnamese and Indian parents in colonial Saigon - now Ho Chi Minh  City - and has French nationality. He lived in Paris after being released from prison in India.

He has escaped from jail in several countries, including Greece, Afghanistan and India, winning him a second nickname, "the Serpent". A Thai arrest warrant had run out by the time he left the Delhi jail.

He was arrested in a the casino of a swish hotel in Kathmandu in 2003. An escaped attempt failed in 2004 and a previous appeal failed in 2005.