KATHMANDU: Charles Sobhraj, an avid student of law during long stints in jail, still protests his innocence and believes he will walk free when a Nepali court hears his appeal against a life sentence for murder.

Frenchman Sobhraj was tried by a Nepali court in 2004 and convicted for the 1975 murder of an American woman, for which he was jailed for 20 years.

He is now appealing his sentence before the Supreme Court, arguing that he was not in Kathmandu at the time Connie Joe Bronzich was repeatedly stabbed and her body burnt almost beyond recognition.

“I really didn’t do it, and I think I will be out,” Sobhraj said in a recent interview.

“In my case, there are no documents and no witnesses (to the crime). I think that the court will have to free me,” said Sobhraj, whose is also known as “The Serpent” for brazen escapes from prisons in Greece, Afghanistan and India.

The date for the next hearing in the appeal which opened in December is expected to be set soon.

As families tried to shout to other prisoners in the clamour of a crowded visitors’ room in Kathmandu’s crumbling central jail, Sobhraj’s immaculate appearance stood in stark contrast to his decrepit surroundings.

The still handsome Sobhraj -- who is half-Vietnamese, half-Indian -- has been linked to a string of poisonings, killings and robberies of backpackers across Asia in the 1970s.

Thai police wanted to question him about five deaths, and Indian authorities convicted him of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other charges, eventually freeing him in 1997 after 21 years of detention.

In 2003, Sobhraj, described by police as a persuasive con man, was arrested in a Kathmandu casino where he said he was doing research for a television documentary.

He was convicted the following year of Bronzich’s killing and the verdict was upheld by a higher court. His lawyers argue the evidence against him was fabricated.

His conviction rests largely on the evidence of handwriting experts who said the signature on hotel registration slips from 1975 matched his.

But Sobhraj, 62 years old and a self-taught martial artist, said the photocopied slips were forged. His lawyers have asked to see the originals but so far they have not been produced.

Raja Ram Dhakal, one of Sobhraj’s five lawyers, said, “Photographs and photocopies are not reliable evidence because they can be fabricated. There is no original evidence, no direct evidence and the chain of circumstantial evidence is not established.” Sobhraj said during his trial and maintains today that he had never visited Nepal before his arrest.

But a retired police officer who identified Sobhraj during the Supreme Court appeal hearing believes the right man is behind bars.

“Finally the killer has been brought to justice. You can commit a crime and you can run, but you can’t hide,” 79-year-old Chandra Bir Rai said.

In dramatic court testimony late last year, Rai said he had seen Sobhraj in Nepal in 1975, contradicting the convict’s claim never to have been in the country before.

“His claim that he did not visit Nepal before 2003 is false,” Rai told the court.

Speaking to the news agency, he reiterated his testimony. “I am sure that this is the same man we saw in 1975,” he said.

“No murder charges in other countries were ever proved -- this might have encouraged him to think that would be the same here. He took Nepali police too lightly.” The driver of a car hired in 1975 by the man who police believe is Sobhraj also identified him in court.

“Though I cannot remember all the events, I can at least remember Sobhraj’s face,” Purna Bahadur Maharajan said in court.

Rai was not involved in investigating the murders of foreign nationals until the remains of Bronzich, a Californian, and her Canadian male friend Laurent Carriere were found at two roadside locations in the Kathmandu valley in late December 1975.

FINGER OF SUSPICION POINTED AT SOBHRAJ: The bodies of Bronzich and Carriere were found two days apart. Carriere had also been repeatedly stabbed and burnt. Sobhraj faced trial only for Bronzich’s murder.

“Murder charges in the second case were also filed, but over past 20 years the police records of the Carriere case were misplaced,” said Bishwalal Shrestha, a lawyer who was the police officer in charge of investigating the grisly murders.

Rai said that when he first met Sobhraj, he was unknown to Nepali police.

“At that time we didn’t know anything about (Sobhraj), but he was a suspect and we kept him under surveillance at his hotel,” said Rai.

Friends of the victims pointed the finger of suspicion at a Vietnamese gem dealer whom Broznich had met.—AFP