Wife of 'Jackal' may defend Sobhraj

Kathmandu, August 6-Charles Gurmukh Sobhraj could spend at least another ten years in jail unless the "life imprisonment" verdict by the Kathmandu District Court, upheld on Thursday by the Patan Appellate Court, is reversed by Nepal's Supreme Court.On August 12 2004, the court had sentenced him for life (20-year jail term) for the 1975 murder of American national Connie Jo Bronizch in Nepal.The previous September, police had picked up the French citizen from the five star Yak and Yeti hotel after he entered the country ostensibly to explore possibilities of doing business in pashmina shawls and mineral water.Sanjeev Ghimire, the lawyer defending the master criminal has now claimed he will move the Apex court following the ‘unexpected’ verdict.But sources say Sobhraj is none too happy with the defence’s efforts thus far and has appealed to his agent in Paris to engage the best legal aid available internationally, according to reports.More specifically, Sobhraj wants French attorney Isabelle Coutant-Peyre to defend his case.Coutant-Peyre has earned her reputation as an attorney by stretching the limits of her professional zeal so far as to first defend and then marry international terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, aka Carlos ‘The Jackal’.She has also been noted for championing lost, oftentimes dubious, causes and taking up unusual assignments such as the defence of Zacarias Moussaoui, a French national of Moroccan origin indicted for conspiracy in the Sept 11 attacks in the United States.The French attorney is by no means unfamiliar with the Sobhraj case. She had put in a brief appearance in Kathmandu last February as one among the four lawyers engaged in Sobhraj’s defence, but had to return to her country following frequent postponements in the hearings.The lawyer had also complained of a communication gap because of the use of local language in court proceedings and problems such as not being allowed by jail authorities to regularly meet with her client and an official disregard for the privilege of client lawyer confidentiality.These shortcomings, in her view, contravened the spirit of a fair trial and went against a 1991 international convention of which Nepal was a signatory.The lawyer, though not particularly happy with ground realities in the Himalayan kingdom, had promised to return to fight Sobhraj’s case at a later date.
Courtesy:the himalaytimes