December 20, 2007	Thursday	Zilhaj 9, 1428

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Supreme Court on Wednesday delayed ruling on an appeal by “Bikini Killer” Charles Sobhraj against his murder conviction as judges ordered another case against him be reopened.

The court said the case accusing the Frenchman of possession of a false passport must be heard again to allow it to rule on his appeal against his conviction for the murder of a US woman for which he was jailed for 20 years.

“We feel the need to reopen the false passport case dropped by the lower courts in order to give a final verdict on the murder case of the American woman,” Supreme Court Justice Anup Raj Sharma told a hearing.

“The false passport case shall be reopened for hearing before giving a final verdict,” Sharma said.

Known as the “Bikini Killer,” Sobhraj was convicted three years ago in Kathmandu for the 1975 murder of Connie Joe Bronzich, who was repeatedly stabbed and her body burnt in 1975, and was sentenced to 20 years in jail.

But charges against Sobhraj of holding a false passport were dropped.

Sobhraj has appealed against the murder conviction, arguing that he had not visited Kathmandu at the time Bronzich was murdered and his lawyers say the evidence against him was falsified.

The 63-year-old French national was arrested at a casino in Kathmandu in 2003.

Sobhraj has repeatedly insisted in interviews with reporters in recent months that Nepal’s Supreme Court was about to overturn his conviction.

“I really didn’t do it and I think I will be out,” Sobhraj said earlier this year.

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 — events that led to the “Bikini Killer” sobriquet.

He has been linked to at least 12 travellers’ deaths in the 1970s in India, Thailand and Nepal. Most of the victims were drugged, killed and robbed of their passports and valuables.

Sobhraj was previously convicted and sentenced to prison in India for murder but escaped.

“It will take more time now as the whole case will be revised again,” said government prosecutor Bishwalal Shrestha, who was the police officer in charge of investigating the murder of the American in the 1970s.—AFP