INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 21The Supreme Court today ordered the government to release murder convict Charles Sobhraj,
currently lodged at the Central Jail in Sundhara, from prison.
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Gautam to furnish explanation to apex court's
constitutional bench
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.
This article first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com