A French serial killer Charles Sobhraj has been freed from a prison in Nepal on Friday. Sobhraj, who had been doing time in the Kathmandu-based prison for the past 19 years for the murder of an American woman, Connie Jo Boronzich, 29, and his Canadian girlfriend Laurent Carrière, 26, in 1975, was freed on the ground of age following a directive of the Supreme Court. Responding to a habeas corpus writ, a division bench of Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Til Prasad Shrestha on Wednesday issued a verdict directing the government to free Sobhraj (78) at the earliest, saying that he has already completed 95 percent of his jail term.

The government was also ordered to make arrangements to send him to his home country within 15 days.

Following his release, he has been sent to the Department of Immigration today. Now, the Department will start the process to deport him to his country. But, Sobhraj has expressed his desire to stay in Nepal for some time. He was arrested on September 19, 2003. Sobhraj had previously spent 20 years in prison in India.