charles sobhraj interview bbc 1997 charles sobhraj interview bbc 1997

Herman Knippenberg now lives in New Zealand, where he keeps a large archive on Sobhrajs crimes in his home. Of course, my first priority will be to return to France. Sobhraj turns 70 in April, by which time he will already have served half his sentence, so in theory he will be free once more. But is the opening interview in the limited series based on actual events? There was also the small matter of Yousuf Ansari, a local media baron who shared the same block in the prison with Sobhraj. How do you see Nepals judicial system? In one of the rooms hed abandoned, just before the police had arrived, he had left a copy of Nietzsches Beyond Good and Evil. With the pair of them I got into a small car and we drove around Paris, heading out to the suburbs beyond the Priphrique. If you haven't heard of his story, Sobhraj is a Frenchman of Vietnamese and Indian descent who drugged, robbed, and murdered travellers going through Asia in the '70s. It's a dusty, noisy place, like a cross between a bazaar and a dilapidated fort. Moreover, when I was released from India, the Indian government had asked Nepal whether I was wanted. The case would become a sensation, involving trickery, drugs, gems, gun running, corruption, dramatic prison escapes and a glamorous female accomplice who was photographed wearing big sunglasses and holding a fluffy dog. We then continued our all-consuming research into the murders. Whether or not he was working for the CIA, surely he must have realised that there was a risk of arrest, given that he was wanted for two murders in Nepal. Ill devote my life to my daughter and will probably keep myself busy with books writing and business. Both in and out of jail, Sobhraj has always had a way with women. He called a friend, an ageing French-Vietnamese character whom he treated as a manservant-cum-bodyguard. He didnt seem dangerous to me, but then he didnt seem dangerous to those he killed, either. "He knows everything," he said. He analysed character according to a system devised by the French psychologist Rene Le Senne, a method he used to impose himself on the gullible. Like Patricia Highsmiths Tom Ripley, he assumed different identities, using stolen passports and creating a trail of havoc wherever he went. This, then, was the man outside whose hotel room I stood on a warm spring day in Paris in 1997. Our friends thought we had gone nuts. "I'd heard of him all through my life, being Indian, and his great escape from Tihar jail," said Dhondy. How are your finances? And such was the richly implausible nature of his exploits that Sobhraj generated his own impressive literary testaments. The drama does a good job of piecing together the bones of the story and recreates something of the woozy, haphazard atmosphere of the hippy trail and the leisurely life of European expats in Bangkok. Here's the Deal, The Hidden Meaning Behind the Hair Colours in "Daisy Jones & The Six", Idris Elba and Wife Sabrina are all Smiles at the Luther Film Premiere, The "Stranger Things" Prequel Stage Play Dives Deep Into Vecna's Origin Story, "Daisy Jones & the Six" Takes Inspiration From a Famous Real-Life Rock Band, Can't Wait For "Daisy Jones & The Six"? IMDb, the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. Definitely. Over the course of a couple of mind-boggling hours he recounted a fantastical plot in which he said he had been working for the CIA in a ruse to trap Taliban guerrillas buying arms from the Chinese triads. The monarchy never recovered, and under the added pressure of a Maoist insurgency, Nepal was declared a republic in 2008. Between 2000 and 2003, I made several trips to Pakistan. When captured, he feigned appendicitis and escaped from hospital. "He wrote back asking if it could fit into two suitcases. He played it both ways. In 1997, after attending a Royal Gala evening, Geri Halliwell kissed Prince Charles on the cheek. Sobhraj is now serving a life sentence in a Nepalese jail for killing two tourists in 1975. (Credit: Charles Sobhraj), Charles Sobhraj exclusive interview: I am going straight back to France to my family I hope to live for many years to come, An Express Investigation Part Four | Compensatory afforestation neither compensates nor forest: 60% funds unused, An Express Investigation Part Three: Red flags, Indias green certification under cloud, Conflict Wood: Under sanctions, prized Myanmar teak finds its way to US, EU markets via India, Recalling the life and crimes of Bikini killer Charles Sobhraj, A brash fellow: retired cop who arrested Sobhraj recalls how he nabbed him at a Goa restaurant. Apparently he hung out every night for a couple of weeks at a casino, as if he wanted to be noticed. He promised her that he was a reformed character and they got engaged, only for him to go back to prison for car theft. This may be just as well because there is a law in Nepal that says when prisoners reach the age 70 their sentence is cut in half. Charles Sobhraj spoke to press on a plane after being freed Sobhraj has been linked to more than 20 killings between 1972 and 1982, in which the victims were drugged, strangled, beaten or burned. Sobhraj insisted that he had never been to Nepal before in his life. As Leclerc wrote in her diary, "I swore to myself to try all means to make him love me, but little by little I became his slave." Sobhraj managed to break out of prison by drugging a guard and then returned to France to kidnap his own daughter. Sobhraj met his current Nepalese lawyer, Shakuntala Thapa, through her daughter, 24-year-old Nihita Biswas, who acted as his translator during one of the Frenchman's many appeals. "'This is Charles Sobhraj,'" said Dhondy with pitch-perfect mimicry. Confronted with all these fantastic stories, Dhondy did what many other writers would have done and turned them into a novel, published in India, entitled The Bikini Murders. For example, when he was cornered by police in Nepal in 1975 he assumed the identity of a Dutch teacher he had already killed in Bangkok, and was able to talk himself out of arrest. We needed our little jokes because actually we were a long way out of our depth. He was jailed in India again for a period during which, according to CNN, the time where he could be tried for. Mention Charles Sobhraj in India, everybody knows, north to south. When the Nepalese police questioned "Gautier", he claimed he was a Dutchman called Henricus Bintanja - who happened to be dead in Bangkok, another victim, it is thought, of Sobhraj. The reporter says, "There are those who would say you got away with it." In July 1976 Sobhraj was on the run in India, wanted for several murders in Thailand and two in Nepal. anywhere in the world." First Richard Neville, the celebrated chronicler of the Sixties counterculture, drew an extended taped confession from Sobhraj in, The Life And Crimes Of Charles Sobhraj - later renamed, The Shadow Of The Cobra. On the eve of the interview, the Nepali authorities changed their minds, and we returned home empty-handed. Referencing the title card, Anthony wrote, "The ABC team were not the only ones back then to speak to Sobhraj, who was suspected of committing at least 12 murders. He was given a life sentence in 1999 for taking an art teacher hostage in prison. But regardless of how he was defined, I wanted to know what he thought about his past deeds. Not only did he know that Sobhraj was guilty, he said, the case was a matter of personal catharsis. Since then, however, his release kept getting delayed in 2017, he had a heart surgery and then came the Covid pandemic. However she remains a staunch advocate of his cause and the attention she has garnered, due to her husband, hasn't been all bad. (In case those names don't sound familiar, they're renamed Willem and Helena in the series.) Often with the former nurse Leclercs help, he drugged them, led them to believe they had contracted a tropical bug, and prevented them from leaving his apartments on the top floor of Kanit House in Bangkok. But finally, they chose the option to release Masood. On 17 February 1997, 52-year-old Sobhraj was released with most warrants, evidence, and even witnesses against him long lost. An embittered Sobhraj upped the crime stakes. In our hotel room we met with scarfaced crims bringing messages from Sobhraj in Tihar prison. The couple married when Sobhraj was released and embarked on an epic crime spree across Europe and Asia, before settling in Mumbai with a newborn child and a profitable trade in stolen cars. Now 76 years old, he is reportedly in poor health while serving a life sentence in Nepal. But presumably that's what his victims thought as well. I have written a manuscript with a co-writer, Jean Charles Deniau, and the book will be publishedIll be busy with the promotion and the making of some documentaries. Soon recognised by a journalist, Sobhraj found himself in the Himalayan Times. Handicrafts? (Did we really have to shake hands with him? He was always studying character, alive to any signs of weakness that could be exploited. Ashe once explained to the same brother: "Always remember that their desire to keep me locked up is no match to my will to be free.". When he left prison, the statute of limitations on his arrest was up. He actually received time for drugging and trying to rob a group of French engineering students in India but wasn't convicted for any murders prior to 1997. The real Charles Sobhraj is still alive and is now serving time in prison after a long time evading punishment, while Marie Andre Leclerc was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 1983 and died the. ", Nevertheless a few years ago, while he was working in India, Dhondy received a phone call from Sobhraj in Kathmandu Central Jail. In an astonishing interview from his cell in Nepal, Charles Sobhraj says he wants Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson and the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to bankroll a movie. I changed the topic and asked about Chantal Compagnon. BBC's (and now Netflix's) The Serpent opens with a title card that reads, "In 1997 an American news crew tracked Charles Sobhraj down to Paris where he was living as . "You must talk to him.". Published: April 9, 2021 at 2:48 pm. For how long remains to be seen. The book was published in 1979, after the Frenchman of Vietnamese and Indian parentage had been on trial in India in 1977, when he thought the admission couldn't hurt him. We bundled ourselves off to Delhi and landed ourselves in a moral quagmire. Serpentine. After he was released in 1997, he became a shameless media star, charging journalists for interviews. He told me he was about to be released. anywhere in the world." The idea that the Americans would make such provisions for a serial killer seems far-fetched, to say the least, although it's fair to say that in the past they have done business with people who are even more disreputable than Sobhraj. If Sobhraj's greatest criminal weakness was his propensity to be caught, it was offset by an impressive strength: his ability to escape. Our writer recalls his bizarre meetings with a charmer and psychopath, At the beginning of The Serpent, the new BBC drama series based on the exploits of a real-life serial killer, a title page declares: In 1997 an American TV crew tracked Charles Sobhraj down to Paris where he was living as a free man.. Sobhraj is escorted by armed policemen to court in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2003. And nor do I think that any coherent explanation for why he killed so many young travellers will ever emerge. Sometimes he would complete the murder by setting the body on fire - in more than one case, investigators found that the victim was not dead when he or she was set alight. With his wide cheekbones; shapely thick lips; piercing eyes; lithe, muscular build; confident manner and dangerous reputation, he presented an irresistible challenge to many female suitors. I declined the offer but asked him to tell me why hed come to Nepal. While you might not be able to track down the interview footage, Sobhraj definitely became a media star following his release, reportedly talking to reporters for hefty sums after settling down in Paris. Well, its quite well known that there is corruption in every sector in Nepal. It was a bizarre situation. He yearns for life outside, but once there he soon finds himself back behind bars. Sobhraj made sure he had those connections. Will your friends in the US intelligence be helping you in your rehabilitation after release from jail? He denied the murders, fed a media frenzy, and eventually went to trial. OK, he said. I came here to make a TV documentary on local handicrafts and to see if I can do some humanitarian work.". Instead it was left to a junior Dutch diplomat looking for the missing Dutch couple, Henk Bintanja and Cornelia Hemker, who became Sobhrajs nemesis. The film-maker Farrukh Dhondy got to know Sobhraj in the six-year gap between his lengthy prison sentences, when Sobhraj was involved in arms dealing. In The Serpent he is accurately portrayed as a dogged if novice investigator. "It was a good enough story to bring Boris to my house so it must have been tasty," recalled Oborne. But Sobhraj was not political. Complaining that he had paid all the necessary bribes, Sobhraj still insisted he was about to be released any day. He maintains that he was quite open with the Nepalese authorities, applying for a visa in France under his own name, assured that the charges were out of date. The child of an affair between an Indian businessman-tailor and one of his Vietnamese shop assistants, Sobhraj (played in the BBC drama by French actor Tahar Rahim) had grown up in Saigon during the Vietnamese war of independence from France. Dhondy had spoken to Chantal Compagnon who told him that Sobhraj had wanted to move to the US with a new identity and money provided by the CIA. (In case those names don't sound familiar, they're renamed Willem and Helena in the series.) I still believed if at that time the government had accepted the suggestion of six months (that Masood would be released in six months), most probably, I could have persuaded Harkat ul Ansar to accept it. 'He finds himself not famous, whereas in prison he's a somebody' "I'm almost 70," he said. Hed also left behind a trail of broken women. You were arrested in Nepal in 2003. The Serpent takes a close look at the year 1976, when a young Dutch diplomat named Herman Knippenberg followed the murders of Henk Bintanja and Cornelia Hemker in Thailand. It was from prison that Sobhraj phoned me out of the blue in 2016. Recently, I filed a petition in the Supreme Court (of Nepal) praying that the court intervene. Sign up for our Celebrity & Entertainment newsletter. I was to leave but someone warned me to be careful, saying Nepal was then facing a Maoist insurgency and the police and courts didnt respect any law or rules. What was going on? He was indeed released in 1997 after spending two decades in an Indian prison. Richard speedily learned the arts of bribery and corruption and arranged regular access to interview him. It was our connection with the so called hippy trail that had landed Richard the contract; the fact that crime reporting, and indeed the world of crime, was alien to us had seemed of no consequence. "He took me aside and said this is too big a story for the Spectator.". In 2003, Sobhraj was arrested once more in Nepal, then later convicted for the 1975 murders of American Connie Jo Bronzich and Canadian Laurent Carrire. "For a meeting with a major Chinese criminal," he said, matter-of-factly, within earshot of a prison guard. Again, Dhondy believes the meeting in Nepal was a real one. By chance, shortly after the call, a couple of documentary makers got in touch with me. "Think about the money," he said. Sobhraj replies, "That's what Time magazine said. How does that compare with your experience in Kathmandu Jail? He spent most of his adolescence in Paris in and out of youth offender facilities and then their adult version. I asked whether he'd be prepared to discuss the murders in this bestseller. 2 weeks ago, The Serpent: Is the 1997 Charles Sobhraj Interview Real? On her release in Kabul, she met an American and moved with him and her daughter to the US. Sobhraj described Dhondy as a "petty middleman", while Dhondy called the threat to sue him "extortion and blackmail". He called me at my Channel 4 office in Charlotte Street in 1997. Other times his gambling debts would lead him to take excessive risks. So his greatest ever prison escape was foiled long before it could take off. I couldnt quite believe that someone who had confessed to a number of the murders to Neville, and against whom there was a wealth of compelling evidence, was free to walk the streets of a European capital. Sobhraj was represented by the infamous lawyer Jacques Vergs, nicknamed the devils advocate because his roster of clients included the Nazi Klaus Barbie, Slobodan Milosevic and the renowned international terrorist Carlos the Jackal. The first thing he did when I knocked on the door was offer me an open bottle of Coke, which was also the way he had incapacitated many of his victims. On August 15, 2016, when his release seemed imminent, Sobhraj replied to questions I sent him on email, with a caveat: the interview, he insisted, should be published only on his release from Kathmandu Jail. But what was it? He killed them by first drugging their drinks and then stabbing or choking them. Many have speculated that Sobhraj murdered him, though he denied it when I asked him. "But I was also working for the CIA," he added, as I'm still trying to put the pieces together. He met her when he was 24 and fresh out of prison in Paris. "He's an old friend of mine," she said, "and he admitted it was all a lie. In one way or another, casinos have often proved Sobhraj's downfall. He looked a curiously slight figure, his skin remarkably smooth, even youthful, given that hed spent the past two decades in an Indian jail. Upon release after his 12-year sentence, he was to be extradited to Thailand to potentially face the death penalty for several murders. Suddenly Sobhraj emerged from a door in the corner. This is an interview of Charles being sarcastic about his murders Show more Show more Tahar Rahim on Why He'd Meet with the Real Serial Killer He Played in 'The Serpent' TheEllenShow 135K views. It's a front for selling arms. Its personal, she replied. But the rest was undoubtedly a product of his pathological imagination. The petition dragged on for months and finally, on August 10 (2016), the court directed the government to increase the daily food allowance. I had last seen Sobhraj in 1997, just after he was released from two decades in an Indian prison. I hope to live for many years to come', Charles Sobhraj (left); his cell in a Kathmandu prison in 2016. After a special plea to the prison minister, two meetings with the prison governor, three body searches and an armed escort, I entered the inner sanctum of the prison, which is run by the prisoners. "I had a lot of female visitors," he told me, "mainly journalists and MA students. Glaring injustices and abuse of power are a conspicuous part of everyday life, so it was not particularly shocking that a famous serial killer wanted for two murders in Nepal was gambling openly at the capital's main casino. Meta pagar 725 millones de dlares para resolver una demanda por privacidad He loved nothing better than talking about his legal appeals. ", The pair stayed in touch and in 2003, Sobhraj called Dhondy, who has a natural-sciences degree from Cambridge, to ask about red mercury. From Bangkok to Bombay, Charles Sobhraj left a trail of destruction wherever he ventured. "He was selling to the Taliban. But exactly why he then killed these harmless young travellers remains a mystery. Biswas had already traded on her notoriety to appear on Bigg Boss, Indias equivalent of Celebrity Big Brother. In The Guardian, Observer reporter Andrew Anthony detailed his own experience talking with Sobhraj. Jenna Coleman, as Marie-Andre Leclerc, with Rahim in The Serpent. Several times when different police forces had him within their grasp, he coolly assumed the identity of another person - usually one of his victims - and talked his way out. Now 76 years old, he is reportedly in poor health while serving a life sentence in Nepal. Viewed from a political perspective, it was a story of the times, a symbolic tale of colonial backlash, an uprooted war child fighting against an oppressive and uncaring system. Simply put, the conditions in Nepali jails are primitive, awful. Then I didnt hear of him for six years, until I read that he had been arrested in Kathmandu for the murders of a Canadian called Laurent Carrire and an American Connie Jo Bronzich, who had been killed in December 1975. Nonetheless, even the police eventually took notice. What had driven him to risk lengthy imprisonment in this impoverished mountain state? He claimed he had emails with coded references to red mercury that he could get from Belarus. I dont think he realises what he does. If he did realise, he didnt appear weighed down by the knowledge. Charles Sobhraj is bundled into a police van in Delhi in 1997, shortly after his release from jail. No, of course. I think hell become one of the top actors in Bollywood. Tell us about your family You have a daughter in Paris. I was shown into a narrow room with a long table, on the far side of which were the prisoners and on the other the visitors. But my head was beginning to spin. Sobhraj was not amused. For all the moral grandeur of those words, at 75 he has spent more than half his life in prison. He was a charismatic figure, fluent in several languages, and finely tuned to what budget travellers wanted. In Kathmandu the prisoners run their side of the prison, where our interview took place, and the guards remain outside. I too made the journey to Paris and managed to arrange an interview for the Observer with the Vietnamese-Indian Frenchman." After 20 years in a New Delhi jail, the man who had confessed to . He escaped from three prisons in three different countries. In September 2003 Sobhraj came to the Casino Royale every night for two weeks to play blackjack. I straightaway refused, saying Masood would never agree, and again, I told them that I was convinced that after 11 days, they would start executing some passengers. Certainly a young French-Canadian nurse named Marie-Andre Leclerc was impressed when she met him travelling in India. "I don't think we need to go into all that," he said, as if they were merely tiresome details. Really, as the plane was in Kandahar, the Indian government had no choice but to release Masood to save the passengers. The only topic that aroused his sense of injustice was his imprisonment, which he took to be one of the great judicial miscarriages of modern times. He has made a continual fuss about his conviction, appealing to everyone from the UN downwards, and is demanding 7m (5.8) compensation for unlawful imprisonment. They had just had a daughter, who was sent back to live with Compagnons parents in France. There is usually also a psychological - rather than purely material - aspect to the killings, and perhaps a ritualised element too. I too made the journey to Paris and managed to arrange an interview for the Observer with the Vietnamese-Indian Frenchman. In resisting the overtures of Sobhraj, he explained, they triggered his childhood preoccupation with being rejected.. "'You'll get 100,000 if you do this for us,' he said, 'because we're not selling furniture. Some estimates number his victims as high as 24, but the truth is no one will ever know the exact figure. Everyone has good and bad sides. 1 day ago, by Yerin Kim Referencing the title card, Anthony wrote, "The ABC team were not the only ones back then to speak to Sobhraj, who was suspected of committing at least 12 murders. It was 1970, the beginning of the so-called hippy trail, when hordes of young people would make long, low-budget trips through southern Europe, the Middle East, India and the far east. In autumn 2011, she appeared as a contestant on Bigg Boss, India's equivalent of, Feisty and articulate, she ran through all the legal flaws in the prosecution's case. So Dhondy set up a meeting with Boris Johnson, the current mayor of London, who was then editor of the Spectator, at the Islington house of Peter Oborne, then the magazine's political editor. He spoke about his meetings with Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, about the long conversations with the late Jaswant Singh, then foreign minister and the man who finally escorted the terrorists to Kandahar; of the undertaking he secured from Masoods party that the hostages wont be harmed. It seemed the more unreliable his behaviour, the more devoted they became. While in prison in Kathmandu, Charles Sobhraj would make the occasional phone call to me just as he did while I covered his trial in India and during his stint in Tihar Jail. A week after I published a damning profile, Sobhraj called me at the Observer office. In Charles and I, he gave an excellent performance. Not for Charles Sobhraj, better known as the Serpent, the title of a new BBC drama series about his crimes and eventual capture. 1 day ago, by Lindsay Kimble She was a little-travelled medical secretary, quiet and emotionally needy. Chip redesign to optimise server ops, water to keep cool, IVF failed Aarti and Ajay thrice: How a doctors persistence helped them become parents after 40, When Nehru picked Opp leader as Deputy Speaker, Prayagraj witness murder: Two minor sons of Atiq admitted to childrens home, police tell court, Sunday Long Reads: Why are there so few women surgeons in India, three French women writers you must read, and more, Iran claims to have unearthed massive lithium deposit: Implications of the reported discovery, AP govt concludes 2-day Global Investors Summit, Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards, Statutory provisions on reporting (sexual offenses), This website follows the DNPAs code of conduct. So much so, I came on a business visa as an assistant producer for a French production company, Gentleman Films Prod. NFTs to create awareness about mental health at Art Dubai, ChatSonic launches ChatGPT-like 'super powerful' Chrome extension, Women's Premier League: Boundary length to be a maximum of 60 metres, 5 metres less than the distance at Women's T20 World Cup, Motorolas Rizr rises above everything else on show at MWC 2023, Meta lowers Quest VR headsets prices to lure customers, Quick Style grooves to Kala Chashma again, this time with an 'Aye Ayo' twist, Creativity at its peak! You must be thirsty, he said, and held out an already opened bottle of Coke. It was a little playful test, and one I politely turned down. I feel 30!" "Can you recommend one?". "Sobhraj took her to the border of France and Switzerland when she came back for him," said Dhondy, "and forced her to sell some land she had inherited. After politely sidestepping his offer, I got on to the question I'd been waiting a long time to ask: whatever made him come back to Nepal? With the single exception of his confessions to Neville, which he later retracted, he has always held to the legal argument that, as hed not been found guilty of any murders, it meant he hadnt committed any murders. What are your plans after release from jail? At first it led to the M25, where Dhondy was directed one morning by Sobhraj. The hit TV show The Serpent is available now on BBC iPlayer and Netflix. He fancied himself as a kind of streetwise intellect, a superman resisting the imperialist order. The filmmaker got a researcher- to look into it and they sent the findings to Sobhraj. Charles Sobhraj exclusive interview: 'I am going straight back to France to my family I hope to live for many years to come' With the master of guile set to take his flight to freedom at age 78, the world may finally get to hear from the man himself - the chronicles, claims and conspiracy theories that make up Charles Sobhraj. PARIS (AP) Convicted killer Charles Sobhraj, suspected in the deaths of at least 20 tourists around Asia in the 1970s, arrived in Paris as a free man Saturday after being released from a life . Those hands had snapped necks.) It's a priceless scene, the man who many expect to replace David Cameron as Tory leader and a serial killer in discussion in an Islington drawing room.