Sobhraj Appeal to Supreme Court Postponed

A Supreme Court appeal by "Bikini Killer" Charles Sobhraj, slated for Wednesday has been postponed and a new date will be set, lawyers said.

Sobhraj, dubbed the "Bikini Killer" after being linked to a series of backpacker deaths across Asia in the 1970s, is appealing his conviction for the murder of a US woman.

"We will know when the (new) hearing will take place on Thursday," said Raja Ram Dhakal, one of Sobhraj's lawyers. The delay was due to the need to find two new Supreme Court justices to assign to the case, he said.

Sobhraj is appealing a 20-year prison sentence for the 1975 murder of American Connie Joe Brozich. He was arrested in 2003 in Kathmandu and he was convicted the following year of Brozich's killing and the verdict was upheld by a higher court.

Sobhraj's lawyers now are appealing the verdict before the Supreme Court, arguing the evidence against the half-Vietnamese, half-Indian French national was fabricated.

Sobhraj was linked to at least 12 travellers' deaths in the 1970s in Thailand, India and Nepal. But the conviction in Nepal was the only time he has been found guilty of murder.