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'Bikini killer' Charles Sobhraj convicted for US woman's murder Jul 30, 2010 KATHMANDU: When this reporter went to Kathmandu's Central Prison to see Charles Sobhraj on Thursday, a day before the Supreme Court was to pronounce the final judgment on his seven-year sensational trial for a murder committed in 1975, he appeared nervous and cagey. An Australian photographer had been to the prison to contact him, for the third day in a row, and he was apprehensive the man was actually a contract killer hired by enemies, whom he did not name, to do a hit and run after he walked out of the prison a free man. The 66-year-old's fears proved to be unfounded on Friday when judges Ram Kumar Prasad Shah and Gauri Dhakal struck down his hopes of freedom, finding him guilty of the gruesome murder of American flower child Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975 and upholding the life term announced by the district court in 2004 and upheld by the appellate court the following year. In a packed and hushed court room, where Sobhraj's 22-year-old fiancée Nihita Biswas sat stunned, along with her mother Shakuntala Thapa, and brother Bijay, Shah enumerated in measured tones the reasons that led the bench to conclude that Sobhraj was guilty despite his denials that he had never come to Nepal before 2003, did not know Bronzich and never committed any crime in the Himalayan republic. Nepal police, who had failed to provide either an airtight case or strong evidence, were baled out by the Indian courts where Sobhraj had faced about eight to nine trials, ranging from robbery to a murder charge. Justice Shah said the judgement was based on the India court proceedings and conclusions as well as at least two statements by Sobhraj in which he had admitted to have visited Nepal in 1975. During a trial in India's Supreme Court, Shah said an Indian magistrate had asked Indian police to investigate the allegation that Sobhraj had killed a Dutch tourist, Henricus Bintanja in Bangkok. The fact that Sobhraj asked not to be extradited to Bangkok, and an "admission" that he went to Kathmandu under Bintanja's name and stayed in the Soaltee Hotel, bolstered the charge by Nepal police that Sobhraj had visited Nepal on Bintanja's tampereed passport and killed Bronzich, the judge said. During the Indian trials, Sobhraj had also mentioned that he came to Nepal accompanied by his girlfriend and accomplice Marie Andree Leclerc and his Indian henchman Ajay Chaudhuri, Shah said. He also told Indian police the three of them fled from the Soaltee after police questioned Sobhraj for Bronzich's murder and quickly exited Nepal using the land route, the judge added. The other piece of clinching evidence, the judges said, was the testimony by an Australian woman tourist who had travelled on the same bus as Bronzich from Pokhara. In her statement, the woman, the judge said without naming her, had said she was in regular touch with Bronzich. Bronzich told her she had made the acquaintance of a Vietnamese jeweller, whom she would be meeting at the Soaltee Hotel, the statement by the woman said. "Even though there was no direct evidence, these links establish Sobhraj's guilt and we find no evidence to indicate that the district court and appellate court had erred in their guilty verdict and uphold it," Shah said. The judges also upheld the contention that besides Bronzich, Sobhraj, who used the aliases Henricus Bintanja and Alain Gautier during his Nepal stay, also killed a Canadian tourist, Laurent Carriere, and used his passport to fly to Bangkok and return a day later. The verdict remained unswayed by the arguments put forward by Thapa, who is also Sobhraj's lawyer, including the rejection of the admissions reportedly made by Sobhraj in India. Sobhraj says he never made any confession in India or say he visited Nepal and the statements attributed to him are fakes forwarded to Nepal police by a former Dutch diplomat who has been stalking him. However, the judges ignored the contention as well as other discrepancies pointed out by Thapa, who was dubbed the "Devil" by state lawyers because of her spirited defence. Thapa and Nihita stormed out of the court after the verdict, calling it a mockery of justice. "We are pinning our hopes on Geneva", Nihita said, referring to the complaint made by Sobhraj at the UN High Commission of Human Rights about his being framed and being sentenced without a fair trial. Earlier, Sobhraj had also indicated a possibility of appealing against the Supreme Court verdict and asking for a full bench – comprising at least three judges – to hear the case again. However, given his dismal failure to sway three courts, a full bench is not likely to overturn the guilty verdict. Though there was no immediate reaction from Sobhraj, prison sources said he was glued to his television set where the trial has been given prime time space. The verdict would come as a glancing blow to him since till yesterday, he refused to believe that he would be found guilty. "There is no evidence against me," he had been saying. The judgment however was hailed by the prosecution that called it the triumph of truth. "It shows that however tricky a case and however cunning the accused may be, justice ultimately prevails," said Shree Krishna Bhattarai, one of the state lawyers fighting to get Sobhraj convicted. "It was also a moment of triumph for us since we put in intense labour in our argument, detailing the trials in Indian courts. We sweated it out to produce a 137-page summing up and it wielded result." Sobhraj, sentenced to serve 20 years, has already completed about seven years. Instead of remaining in prison for 13 more years, he could be released earlier due to his age and remission due to good behaviour. With Friday's verdict Nepal becomes the only country to decisively find him guilty of murder. Though linked to 12 to 30 killings, mostly of European tourists, he had never been found guilty in court of murder, despite being branded with the tag "Bikini Killer". courtesy |
