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Nepal's Supreme Court Upholds Charles Sobhraj's Life Sentence for the 1975 Murder of American Connie Jo Bronzich

A two-judge bench found no fault in the lower courts' rulings, though there was no direct evidence. Sobhraj's lawyer said he had been denied justice.

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Charles Sobhraj in a cap and glasses surrounded by people outside a court in Kathmandu

Charles Sobhraj, long linked to killings of young travelers across Asia in the 1970s, had been fighting his Nepal murder conviction since 2004. On July 30, 2010, Nepal's Supreme Court upheld it.

A two-judge bench of Justices Ram Kumar Prasad Shah and Gauri Dhakal rejected his appeal in the 1975 murder of American Connie Jo Bronzich and upheld the decisions of the Kathmandu District Court, which sentenced him in 2004 to life in prison with confiscation of all his property, and the Patan Appellate Court, which affirmed it in 2005. A life term in Nepal is 20 years. "Although there is no direct evidence, based on circumstantial evidence, we don't see any fault in the decision of the Kathmandu district court and the Patan appellate court," Justice Shah said. The court took into account a statement Sobhraj had made before an Indian court that he had traveled to Nepal with his girlfriend. The bench had put off its verdict on July 14, the third time it had delayed a ruling.

Sobhraj, 66, a French national, was arrested at a casino in Kathmandu in 2003. He had earlier served 21 years in prison in India for culpable homicide. His lawyer, Shakuntala Thapa, who is also his mother-in-law, said he had been "denied" justice. A separate case over the 1975 killing of Canadian Laurent Armand Carriere was pending in the Bhaktapur District Court.

PTI spelled the victim's name Connie Joe Bronzich in its July 14 report, while its July 30 report and Nepal's Supreme Court spelled it Connie Jo.

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