Nepal again postpones 'bikini killer' appeal 01/11/2006 00:00

"The court failed to hear the appeal as there were eleven appeals but only eight were heard today," said Ram Bandhu Sharma, a lawyer representing Sobhraj.

A new date for the appeal will be set on Thursday, Sharma said.

Sobhraj was linked to the killings of young backpackers in the 1970s and was arrested at a casino in Nepal's capital in 2003. A year later he was found guilty of the 1975 murder of US citizen Connie Joe Brozich on the outskirts of

Kathmandu.

The self-taught legal expert and multi-linguist said at his trial that he had never visited Nepal before his arrest. He was convicted largely on the strength of handwriting experts who matched Sobhraj's handwriting with signatures on hotel registration cards from 1975.

Sobhraj, who is half-Vietnamese and half-Indian and has French nationality, was linked to at least 12 travellers' deaths in the 1970s in India, Thailand and Nepal.

During his criminal career he escaped from prisons in India, Afghanistan and Greece, earning himself another nickname, "The Serpent," for his brazen jail breaks.

Most of his alleged victims were drugged, killed and robbed of their passports and valuables.

Copyright AFP

Subject: French news