Sobhraj verdict on July 14

KATHMANDU - A sensational murder in Nepal in 1975, that police blame on yesteryear’s international crime maestro Charles Sobhraj, could be finally laid to rest next month with judges Wednesday announcing they would deliver the verdict July 14.

In three weeks’ time, the Frenchman, sent behind bars for 20 years for the murder of American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich, will either walk out a free man or pin his hopes on yet another long legal battle.

Supreme Court judges Ram Prasad Shah and Gauri Dhakal, who last year began hearing the 65-year-old’s appeal against the life sentence by Kathmandu district court in 2003, Wednesday wrapped up nearly eight months of arguments by the state as well as Sobhraj’s formidable team of lawyers, asking both to submit their arguments in writing by July 6.

It will then be followed by the verdict eight days later.

The police say Sobhraj killed a Dutch tourist, Henricus Bintanja, in 1975 and then used his passport to fly to Nepal. There, he befriended Bronzich, allegedly for a stash of valuable gems she had bought in India, and stabbed her to death.

He and his accomplices then set the body on fire so that she would not be identified.

However, the claim has been persistently fought by Sobhraj, who says he never came to Nepal before 2003, when he arrived in Kathmandu to explore several legitimate businesses, like exporting handicraft, making documentaries and setting up a mineral water factory.

In their closing argument Wednesday, his lawyers told the court police had faked all documents, including a hotel bill for food and beverages in 2003.

According to police, Sobhraj absentmindedly signed it Alain, an alias he allegedly used in Thailand to prey on western tourists. The lawyers pointed out that the bill does not have either the logo of the hotel or its stamp, unlike all other bills which are imprinted with both.

Sobhraj’s lawyer Bandhu Sharma, also pointed out to the judges that in 2003, district court judge Bishwambhar Shrestha had found Sobhraj guilty based on a misconstrued word in a letter.

The letter was published in the book “The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj” by journalists Richard Neville and Julie Clarke. The book has been the backbone of the prosecution’s case that Sobhraj was a serial killer.

The letter, written by Sobhraj to the authors from Tihar Jail, says his female accomplice Marie Andree Leclerc had not told her parents back home in Canada about her “illegal activities”.

The judge read that as “Nepal activities” and wrote in his judgment that it proved conclusively that Sobhraj had been in Nepal in 1975.

(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)