KATHMANDU (AFP) — Nepal's Supreme Court on Tuesday delayed its final verdict on the appeal of "Bikini Killer" Charles Sobhraj against his conviction for murdering a US backpacker in 1975.
French national Sobhraj was found guilty five years ago of killing Connie Joe Bronzich, a tourist who was repeatedly stabbed and her body burnt almost beyond recognition and then dumped on the outskirts of Kathmandu.
Sobhraj, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail, has always maintained his innocence, saying he had never visited Nepal before he was arrested in the city in 2003.
The supreme court sent the trial back to a lower court, which it asked to re-examine the case of an alleged fake passport that Sobhraj's lawyers say the police produced to prove he was in the country at the time of the murder.
Sobhraj, 64, has been linked to a string of poisonings, killings and robberies of backpackers across Asia in the 1970s -- events that led him to dubbed as the "Bikini Killer."
He spent 21 years in Indian jails until his release in 1997, after being convicted of culpable homicide and other charges.
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