Sobhraj’s Lawyer to Appeal to UNCHR

Kathmandu, August 5-Reacting to yesterday’s verdict by the Patan Appellate Court , French defence lawyerof alleged international serial killer Charles Gurumukh Sobhraj, Isabelle Countant Peyre, today said she was shocked to hear the news and she was intending to take the case to the UNCHR.Peyre said she would move the United Nations Committee for Human Rights challenging her client’s case. Peyre added that she would inform UN authorities of this “new violation of international agreements in judicial matters and fair trials by Nepal.” “I am also requesting the intervention of the French Government,” she added. “I am in a state of shock. It is intolerable that Nepalese judges had last year freed Mr Robinson, a drug lord who had been caught transporting large quantities of drugs,” she said.
The appeals court yesterday upheld the Kathmandu District Court’s last year’s verdict convicting the Sobhraj for killing an American citizen, Connie Jo Bronzich, in 1975 in Nepal and slapping a life term on him.In an email statement, Peyre said, “I am in a state of shock as I just came to know the verdict given by the judges from the Patan Appellate Court, who had kept on postponing for months the appeal procedures concerning Charles Sobhraj after his sentencing by the Kathmandu District Court last year.”“It is intolerable and absolutely shocking that the Nepalese judges, whose Court had last year freed Mr Robinson, a drug lord who had flagrantly been caught while transporting important quantities of drugs,” she added.
Peyre also added that she is intended to immediately take this case to the United Nations Committee for Human Rights and “inform the UN authorities of this new violation by Nepal of all international agreements in judicial matters and on the subject of fair trials.”