August 19, 2008	Tuesday	Sha’aban 16, 1429

KATHMANDU: A Frenchman linked to a series of grisly backpacker killings across Asia in the 1970s appeared in Nepal’s Supreme Court to appeal his murder conviction, a lawyer said.

Charles Sobhraj, 64, known as “the Bikini Killer,” is serving a 20-year jail term in Nepal for the 1975 murder of American backpacker Connie Joe Bronzich, who was repeatedly stabbed to death on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

Sobhraj maintains his innocence, and said he had never visited Nepal before he was arrested there in 2003 and convicted a year later.

“We had a hearing in the Supreme Court today, but we ran out of time,” said Ram Bandu Sharma, one of Sobraj’s six lawyers. “We need at least three more hearings before the court can reach a verdict.” Sobhraj, who is half-Vietnamese and half-Indian, has been linked to a string of poisonings, killings and robberies of young holidaymakers across Asia in the 1970s — crimes that led to him being dubbed the “Bikini Killer.” Sobhraj was previously convicted and sentenced to prison in India for murder, but he escaped.—AFP