He was spotted playing baccarat in a casino by journalist Joseph Nathan, one of the founders of the Himalayan Times newspaper, and arrested.
“He looked harmless… It was very fortunate that I recognized him,” Nathan told AFP on Thursday.
“I think it was karma.”
A Nepal court sentenced Sobhraj to life imprisonment the following year for the 1975 murder of American tourist Connie Jo Bronzich. A decade later, he was also found guilty of murdering Bronzich’s Canadian partner.
Speaking to AFP on Friday amid shocked fellow passengers on Qatar Airways, Sobhraj insisted he was innocent of the killings in Nepal.
“The courts in Nepal, from the district court to the high court and the Supreme Court, all the judges, they were biased against Charles Sobhraj,” he said.
He said, “I’m innocent in those cases, right? So I don’t need to feel bad or good for that. I’m innocent. It was made on fake documents.”
Thai police officer Sompol Suthimai – whose work with Interpol was instrumental in securing his 1976 arrest – induced Sobhraj to be extradited to Thailand and tried there for the murders.
But Sompol told AFP on Thursday that he had no objection to being released, as he and the criminal he chased were too old.
“After all this time, I don’t have any feelings for him,” Sompol, 90, said.
“I think he has already paid for his actions.”
