In September 2003 Sobhraj came to the Casino Royale every night for two weeks to play blackjack. Of all the places to go, why did he travel to the one country where there were outstanding arrest warrants for him? I too made the journey to Paris and managed to arrange an interview for the Observer with the Vietnamese-Indian Frenchman." Chowdhury disappeared after a trip to Malaysia with Sobhraj and has never been seen again. In The Guardian, Observer reporter Andrew Anthony detailed his own experience talking with Sobhraj. A Bollywood film (Main Aur Charles) has been made on you. Pretty good. One wonders, why did you take the risk of returning to Nepal where you were a wanted man? When he left prison, the statute of limitations on his arrest was up. He actually received time for drugging and trying to rob a group of French engineering students in India but wasn't convicted for any murders prior to 1997. A former commissioning editor at Channel 4, he is now a playwright, novelist and documentary maker. With the pair of them I got into a small car and we drove around Paris, heading out to the suburbs beyond the Priphrique. He was indeed released in 1997 after spending two decades in an Indian prison. 10. Afterwards, he would steal their belongings and identities, often travelling the world on their passports and money. He didnt seem dangerous to me, but then he didnt seem dangerous to those he killed, either. "This is Charles, Charles Sobhraj." While in prison in Kathmandu, Charles Sobhraj would make the occasional phone call to me just as he did while I covered his trial in India and during his stint in Tihar Jail. I changed the topic and asked about Chantal Compagnon. Over the course of a couple of mind-boggling hours he recounted a fantastical plot in which he said he had been working for the CIA in a ruse to trap Taliban guerrillas buying arms from the Chinese triads. I told him what I knew, that the Russians said that they had an isotope that could act as a trigger for nuclear bombs "It was a hotel on the M20 junction," Dhondy recalled. You must be thirsty, he said, and held out an already opened bottle of Coke. Jenna Coleman, as Marie-Andre Leclerc, with Rahim in The Serpent. Who's to say what's right and wrong? Nepal to release The Serpent serial killer Charles Sobhraj, Onthe Trail of The Serpent: the story behind the true crime classic, TheSerpent: a slow-burn TV success that's more than a killer thriller, TVtonight: Charles Sobhraj's life of crime, 'I saw him as an animal': Tahar Rahim on playing a real-life serial killer. "I was still in love with Chantal, but I was with my Chinese wife who was pregnant, so I told Chantal, 'I can't be with you.'". Sobhraj was arrested and imprisoned multiple times for various crimes from burglary to armed robbery, but he would always be released or manage to escape, such as when he pretended to be ill,. Instead he was arrested and imprisoned in Tehran on suspicion of selling arms to the anti-Shah underground. Then I didnt hear of him for six years, until I read that he had been arrested in Kathmandu for the murders of a Canadian called Laurent Carrire and an American Connie Jo Bronzich, who had been killed in December 1975. It seemed the more unreliable his behaviour, the more devoted they became. Now that the master of guile is set to take his flight to freedom at age 78, the world may finally get to hear from the man himself the chronicles, claims and conspiracy theories that make up Charles Sobhraj. The idea that the Americans would make such provisions for a serial killer seems far-fetched, to say the least, although it's fair to say that in the past they have done business with people who are even more disreputable than Sobhraj. The Serpent starts on BBC One, 9pm, New Years Day, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. You met Pakistani terrorist Masood Azhar while in Tihar Jail. He played it both ways. I couldnt quite believe that someone who had confessed to a number of the murders to Neville, and against whom there was a wealth of compelling evidence, was free to walk the streets of a European capital. He called a friend, an ageing French-Vietnamese character whom he treated as a manservant-cum-bodyguard. New Delhi, April 28: Investigating several high-profile cases like Jessica Lal's murder, Sanjeev Nanda BMW hit and amp; run, Charles Sobhraj's escape from Tihar Jail, among others, gave Amod K . But what could he do? Boris Johnson, arms dealing, drug trafficking, the Taliban, the Triads, the CIA, the Iraq war and Saddam's secret search for a nuclear bomb: when my phone rang in the lobby of the Shanker Hotel, I knew nothing of these aspects of the story that had brought me to Kathmandu. Thapa was adamant that Ganesh, the policeman, had made the story up about seeing Bronzich's body when he was a boy to create greater publicity for himself. 2 days ago, by Victoria Edel Back in the Seventies, Sobhraj murdered at least ten people, mostly Western travellers along the Asian hippie trail. All rights reserved. Really, as the plane was in Kandahar, the Indian government had no choice but to release Masood to save the passengers. Sobhraj wanted payment for the interview but I refused and, to my surprise, he agreed to talk. He was a charismatic figure, fluent in several languages, and finely tuned to what budget travellers wanted. In Greece he swapped identities with his brother, leaving him to serve an 18-year sentence. Until quite recently it was a monarchist state in which the royal family lived lives of extraordinary luxury amid the surrounding squalor endured by most of its subjects. "It was a good enough story to bring Boris to my house so it must have been tasty," recalled Oborne. "I don't think so," says Biswas, when I ask her if she thinks Sobhraj has ever killed anyone. Sobhraj had made himself an object of passion to a Canadian medical secretary he met in Rhodes, Greecea woman named Marie-Andre Leclerc, who was vacationing with her fianc. I doubt that day will ever arrive. His first wife was once asked by an Indian journalist how she could have feelings for a killer. With his wife behind bars in Afghanistan, he returned to France and kidnapped his daughter from her maternal grandparents. 3 days ago. After a special plea to the prison minister, two meetings with the prison governor, three body searches and an armed escort, I entered the inner sanctum of the prison, which is run by the prisoners. Millions of viewers held their breath as they saw Dominique escape Thailand with the help of a fake passport before he . For his part, Ganesh claimed that as a young boy he had been traumatised by seeing Connie Jo Bronzich's burnt and naked corpse in a field near his home. An embittered Sobhraj upped the crime stakes. Later, he realised that the confession might prove problematic and denied everything he told Neville about the murders. But Sobhraj himself remains impenetrable. \r\rAfter spending 21 years in an Indian jail, Charles Sobhraj, known as \"The Serpent\", has been allowed into France.\r\rSobhraj who was born to an Indian father and a Vietnamese mother claims French citizenship.\r\rBut he was immediately taken into custody on his arrival in Paris and his French lawyer has accused the French government of incompetence over the handling of his case.\r\rIt was a long wait for those waiting to see Charles Sobhraj walk out of the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on Tuesday.\r\rAlthough Sobhraj is now a free man, he was taken into custody by the French authorities after arriving on an overnight flight from New Delhi.\r\rAmong those waiting were his French lawyer Jacques Verges, known for defending other notorious figures, such as the late Klaus Barbie, the infamous Nazi Gestapo chief and Carlos \"The Jackal\".\r\rSuspected of murder by Indian and Thai authorities, but never convicted, Sobhraj is believed to have drugged and killed at least 14 young tourists in those two countries in the 1970s.\r\rThe famous criminal has spent 21 years in prison on charges of robbery. Sobhraj is escorted by armed policemen to court in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2003. The first thing he did when I knocked on the door was offer me an open bottle of Coke, which was also the way he had incapacitated many of his victims. He is obsessed with preventing anyone from exploiting his life for financial gain and threatened to sue the writer. (8 Apr 1997) French/Nat Charles Sobhraj, the man suspected of killing 14 young tourists throughout Asia arrived in Paris on Tuesday. Sobhraj was born into the turmoil and violence of Saigon in 1944. "I risked my life for the war on terror," he protested, a little improbably, claiming that the CIA abandoned him when he was arrested. BBC's (and now Netflix's) The Serpent opens with a title card that reads, "In 1997 an American news crew tracked Charles Sobhraj down to Paris where he was living as a free man." Sobhraj was a nuisance for both the Nepalese and French, and neither wanted to afford him the opportunity for publicity. But what is the Met Gala? Upon release after his 12-year sentence, he was to be extradited to Thailand to potentially face the death penalty for several murders. On August 15, 2016, when his release seemed imminent, Sobhraj replied to questions I sent him on email, with a caveat: the interview, he insisted, should be published only on his release from Kathmandu Jail. "Ask Nietzsche," he replied with a grin. On release, he was due to be extradited to Thailand, where he faced the death penalty for several murders. He became a famous outlaw in India. But he managed to avoid conviction for either of the killings, and instead received a 12-year sentence for the attempted robbery of the students. My programme was to be in Kathmandu for only a few days for that meeting, and leave. I met Masood. "He knows everything," he said. The reporter says, "There are those who would say you got away with it." He was relying on Dhondy to put his case. Not only did he know that Sobhraj was guilty, he said, the case was a matter of personal catharsis. "For a meeting with a major Chinese criminal," he said, matter-of-factly, within earshot of a prison guard. The calls from Kathmandu were mostly when he was taken out of jail for a court hearing or a visit to the hospital. All he really possesses are the secrets of his crimes. In fact, his relationship with Compagnon continued until less than three years ago, when she was threatened on the phone by an angry Nihita Biswas. Humanitarian work? All of which meant that in 1997 he returned to Paris, where I went to interview him for the Observer. Ill devote my life to my daughter and will probably keep myself busy with books writing and business. I hope to live for many years to come. The only certainty is that the Serpent will not slip away to a quiet retirement in the French countryside. There was also the small matter of Yousuf Ansari, a local media baron who shared the same block in the prison with Sobhraj. Since then, however, his release kept getting delayed in 2017, he had a heart surgery and then came the Covid pandemic. I met Thapa and Biswas together in Kathmandu to discuss Sobhraj and his case. So Dhondy set up a meeting with Boris Johnson, the current mayor of London, who was then editor of the Spectator, at the Islington house of Peter Oborne, then the magazine's political editor. . He went on to explain that he had been working as an arms dealer to, among others, the Taliban, courtesy of an introduction from the Islamist terrorist leader Masood Azhar, a friend from his days in Tihar prison. He claimed he had emails with coded references to red mercury that he could get from Belarus. His father was a successful Indian tailor and his mother was his father's mistress, a local Vietnamese woman. No, of course. We suggested he try the Telegraph.". Well, you already know about it After Masood Azhars release following the Indian Airline hijacking incident (in 1999), The Indian Express had mentioned my role with the Government of India at that time. He wore a playful but challenging smile as I politely declined his offer. The suggestion was that Sobhraj was part of another murder plot. He eventually made off with thousands of pounds worth of jewels. Sobhraj walked free and returned to France in 1997 after serving 20 years. Of course, my first priority will be to return to France. Six years ago, when she just 20, Biswas married Sobhraj in a ceremony inside Kathamandu Central Jail. Apparently he hung out every night for a couple of weeks at a casino, as if he wanted to be noticed. Some years after that I read that he had been visited by a hired assassin in prison, who then attempted to murder one of his fellow inmates in debt to some bigwig on the outside. In those days visitors entered and left countries like Thailand, Hong Kong and Nepal with minimum official processing. 'He can't deal with the outside world,' says the documentary maker and writer Farrukh Dhondy. But many of his alleged murders remain unresolved - and for Knippenberg, the case still doesn't feel. We said our goodbyes and he told me to call him. Sobhraj has always been provocative in his choice of lawyers. But is the opening interview in the limited series based on actual events? You were arrested in Nepal in 2003. Charles Sobhraj is bundled into a police van in Delhi in 1997, shortly after his release from jail. ", I asked him in Paris about the power he held over those who came under his influence. Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police say is responsible for a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, was released from a Nepal prison on Friday after nearly two decades behind bars. Simply put, the conditions in Nepali jails are primitive, awful. But finally, they chose the option to release Masood. Referencing the title card, Anthony wrote, "The ABC team were not the only ones back then to speak to Sobhraj, who was suspected of committing at least 12 murders. For how long remains to be seen. "Johnson turned up on his bicycle," recalled Dhondy. On receiving a negative reply from Nepal, the Government of India then informed the CMM (Chief Metropolitan Magistrate) in Delhi that I was no longer wanted by any country and could be released (for) A planned meeting with a Chinese party from Hong Kong, a legal business matter. He joins the dots and (spoiler alert) presents the information to the Thai police, who arrest Sobhraj but then, through a mixture of incompetence and complacency, allow him to escape. Now you can ask your questions.. Sobhraj denied all knowledge of the plot, but the prison authorities claimed that the gunman had visited him 21 times in the preceding months. Thanks to evidence preserved and provided by his old adversary Knippenberg, he was found guilty and given a life sentence. At one moment he would lapse into philosophical musings, the next make a blackly mordant joke. The Serpent takes a close look at the year 1976, when a young Dutch diplomat named Herman Knippenberg followed the murders of Henk Bintanja and Cornelia Hemker in Thailand. In one way or another, casinos have often proved Sobhraj's downfall. When captured, he feigned appendicitis and escaped from hospital. Glaring injustices and abuse of power are a conspicuous part of everyday life, so it was not particularly shocking that a famous serial killer wanted for two murders in Nepal was gambling openly at the capital's main casino. We met at his home in south London, where he spoke about first meeting Sobhraj. "I said, 'You're the serial killer.' And Sobhraj was not unaware of his magnetic appeal. Sobhraj met his current Nepalese lawyer, Shakuntala Thapa, through her daughter, 24-year-old Nihita Biswas, who acted as his translator during one of the Frenchman's many appeals. '", Dhondy said Compagnon's theory about Sobhraj is that he can't live without prison, the regime, the routine, and the status he enjoys there. A foreign diplomat told me that the French embassy made no secret of its arrangement with Kathamandu Central Jail, in which the two institutions referred potential visitors back and forth to each other until they gave up. And such was the richly implausible nature of his exploits that Sobhraj generated his own impressive literary testaments. He thinks the Chinese didn't turn up because they suspected that Sobhraj was double-crossing them. Sobhraj described Dhondy as a "petty middleman", while Dhondy called the threat to sue him "extortion and blackmail". This, then, was the man outside whose hotel room I stood on a warm spring day in Paris in 1997. Other times his gambling debts would lead him to take excessive risks. I would see, she said, casually. I was a little anxious that he had taken objection to my portrayal of him as a dissembling if captivating psychopath. He cant deal with the outside world, said Dhondy. Also, while in Kathmandu, you married your lawyers daughter.
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