Fresh twist in The Serpent serial killer Charles Sobhraj case over 1975 'murder' of two backpackers

Detectives have launched a fresh bid to re-imprison the hippy trail killer dubbed The Serpent who is believed to have murdered at least 20 young Western backpackers.

The move comes after a retired senior British police officer interviewed evil Charles Sobhraj and said afterwards that cops in Holland are empowered to arrest the man who numbered two Dutch tourists among his victims.

Dutch police told MailOnline they are poised to re-open the investigation.

The new focus centres on an investigation by retired Metropolitan Police Commander Gary Copson, who while speaking to the notorious killer refused to shake his outstretched hand.

He has handed his file to Dutch police and believes Holland can try Sobhraj unhindered by any statute of limitations, as it has been claimed.

Dutch police have told MailOnline they are poised to reopen the investigation into Charles Sobhraj, who is still wanted for the murder of two Dutch nationals in 1975

Charles Sobhraj and his accomplice Marie-Andree Leclerc pictured in the mid 70s; Sobhraj, dubbed Bikini Killer or The Serpent was released in December 2022 from a Nepalese prison after serving 20 years for the murders of two backpackers in Kathmandu

Mr Copson has revealed police in Holland can circumnavigate laws in France, which protect French nationals from extradition, to begin measures to apprehend Sobhraj.

Sobhraj,79, has been in hiding in Paris since his release from jail in Nepal in 2022 after 19 years behind bars for killing two tourists in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1975.

But the French national is still wanted for killing Dutch students Henk Bintanja, 29, and Cornelia Hemker, 25, who were invited to Thailand after meeting Sobhraj in Hong Kong.

They were drugged, strangled and burned by Sobhraj and his accomplices and their bodies were discovered two days later on December 18, 1975.

Sobhraj was convicted of the murders of Connie Jo Bronzich and Laurent Carrière in Nepal in 2002, and he served a 19-year prison sentence from 2002 to 2023.

He was also imprisoned in India between 1976 to 1997 for poisoning several people, and during this prison stint the statute of limitations for the killings in Thailand —for which he would have faced the death penalty— had expired.

But it was revealed that Sobhraj could still be investigated for the killings of Bintanja and Hemker.

Mr Copson, who participated in three Channel Four documentaries on the serial killer, later informed the filmmakers that the victims' families could still seek justice.

Referring to the murders of the Dutch victims, Mr Copson said Sobhraj has evaded justice in Thailand as a result of the statute of limitations, but the Dutch legal system had greater powers.

He added: 'It occurred to me that the Dutch can pursue the murder of Dutch citizens anywhere in the world.

'There's no statute of limitation but a public interest test. The murders of Cornelia and Henk are simply atrocious, so they could get these murders that were committed in Thailand into court.

'It feels really important to me, I'm not suggesting we should do this . . . but we must do this.'

A senior investigator linked to the International Crimes Team of the Dutch Police said the accusations against Sobhraj involving two Netherlands nationals could 'certainly be reopened.'

Sobhraj's exploits were dramatised in the 2021 BBC drama The Serpent, starring Tahar Rahim as Sobhraj and Jenna Coleman as his lovesick sidekick Marie-Andree Leclerc

He told Mail Online: 'The statute of limitations does not apply when we are dealing with historic crimes of this nature.

'Justice is paramount, meaning such crimes must be investigated and the guilty parties brought to justice.'

Sobhraj smirked his way through the three-part documentaries while giving his first interviews to two retired British detectives and a forensic psychologist and denied being a killer at all, despite having previously admitted a string of murders.

Charles Sobhraj photographed at the time of his capture in New Delhi, India, in 1977

Along with the two Dutch nationals, he is believed to have killed three more people in Thailand.

The killer was branded narcissistic, controlling, remorseless, flawed and remained a dangerous individual.

The Serpent got married to his second wife Nihita inside the Kathmandu prison on October 9, 2008.

At the time, Sobhraj was 66 and his wife in her early twenties.

The Serpent's wife Nikita refused to talk about him when contacted by MailOnline.

Asked if she was continuing her relationship with Sobhraj, she said : 'I don't do update interviews anymore.'

Sobhraj was convicted of the murders of Connie Jo Bronzich and Laurent Carrière in Nepal in 2002, and he served a 19-year prison sentence from 2002 to 2023

The killer's mother-in-law Sakuntala Thapa, who is also his lawyer in Kathmandu, told MailOnline she had lost contact with him and refused to discuss her daughter's relationship with Sobhraj.

'Where is Charles? I will have to ask my daughter. For many months I haven't heard about Charles.

'I can only speak to you about him once he has spoken to me and said it is okay.'

The documentary makers Monster Films said Sobhraj had declined any further media interviews and asked not be sent any messages from the media.

But the scheming killer has chosen his new hiding place well. Few know of his whereabouts and despite having a wife in Nepal, he remains in France, determined not to be tried for the Thai murders he has confessed to.

But a French Government source said France resisted extraditing its own nationals 'under any circumstances.'

'A case could be built up in Holland, and requests put in to have Sobhraj stand trial in Holland, but the liklihood is that all extradition requests would be turned down,' said the source.

Sobhraj is said to have confessed to the murders of the Dutch tourists, plus eight others, in a 1981 book by Julie Clarke and Richard Neville, but he later recanted.

He would befriend his victims on the hippy trail in Asia and then drug, rob and murder them, even using their names and passports to travel to other countries and commit further crimes.

Copson's comments come just days after Sobhraj appeared in a new Channel 4 documentary that aired on Tuesday night, in which he said he was guilty of robbing, drugging and stealing his victims' passports - but continues to deny murdering anyone.

Sobhraj, who was the subject of hit BBC 2021 drama The Serpent, agreed to be interviewed by detectives and psychologists for the programme to 'put forward the facts' and reveal his 'truth'.

Donning a wig and reading glasses, he responded to an interrogation by retired Metropolitan Police chief inspector Jackie Malton. 

When the former officer asked Sobhraj 'did you rob people?' he replied: 'robbing, yes I did'.

Regarding allegations of 'drugging people', he responded: 'yes I did' and gave the same response when asked if he'd 'taken' his victims' passports.

However, Sobhraj, who spotted in London enjoying the sights last week, outright denied committing murder, at which point Malton confronted him with the 1979 book, The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj, in which he confessed to 10 killings - but later withdrew his confession.

The charming felon coolly replied that they were nothing more than 'alleged' crimes and instead blamed co-author and journalist Richard Neville for spouting misinformation.

Later on in the documentary he confessed to doing 'wrong' but stood by his denial of murder.

He said: 'I did wrong. I did something wrong, I have recognised it, admitted it. 

Sobhraj was pictured departing from Kathmandu to France in December 2022 after spending almost 20 years in a Nepali prison

'I did wrong to some people and those wrongs were yes immoral but I didn't go to the extent of killing anyone'. 

The convicted fraudster has deemed the three-part series his one chance to quell 'false accusations' surrounding his exploits.

The documentary was filmed at a secret location in  London just weeks after being released from his two-decade stint in a Nepal prison.

Aside from examining his crimes, it also unravels the life of a 'disruptive child' whose Indian father Sobhraj Hatchard Bavani and Vietnamese mother Tran Loang Phun divorced when he was young.

As a child he was shuttled between his dad in Vietnam and mother in France where he stayed with her new husband, an army officer.

At nine he was sent to a Catholic boarding school but soon left education behind in favour of the streets, resulting in a jail stint for theft and robbery.

At 19 he was jailed again, this time for an armed robbery. He was sent to tough French prison, Poissy, where he was effectively abandoned by his family.

Speaking in the programme, Sobhraj accused his mother of turning her back on him as she never came to visit him in prison.

He said: '[It's] almost like she didn't care... I believe she was that kind of woman.

'I've shut myself from her. I just shut myself'

The Vietnam-born father-of-one, pictured in 2014,  and his French-Canadian lover Marie-Andree Leclerk, would befriend Western tourists in bars and hotels before drugging and then murdering them. Sobhraj then took their cash or travellers' cheques and stole their passports.

When asked by the narrator if he 'loved' his mother, he paused retrospectively before answering 'no'.

He later added that she was a 'very, very selfish woman' which 'hurt' him. He explained that he gets through it by not thinking about it.

At one point in the programme he appeared softly spoken when speaking of his first wife Chantal Compagnon with whom he shares a daughter. 

He called her 'beautiful', 'intellectual' and said they had an 'instant attraction'.

However their union was far from innocent as it was alleged she joined him for much of his early criminal days in the 70s - before their life on the run was intercepted by a prison stint.

His crimes took on a new level in the mid 70s, after fleeing back to the Far East to escape his previous life in France, Sobhraj took up with a French Canadian lover Marie-Andree Leclerc, who followed him slavishly as he exerted a cult-like hold over travellers to Bangkok, many of whom were never seen again.

The killings, for which he was later convicted, began in 1975. Sobhraj and Marie-Andree would befriend Western tourists in bars and hotels and invite them to stay at their apartment. She used the alias Monique, and would pretend to be Sobhraj's wife or a fashion model.

Sobhraj is said to have confessed to the murders of the Dutch tourists, plus eight others, in a 1981 book by Julie Clarke and Richard Neville, but he later recanted

The couple hosted parties for their 'guests' and took them to Bangkok nightspots. Their victims were drugged with a crude mix of laxatives, sedatives and vomit-inducing medication.

Those who survived were stabbed, strangled, drowned or burned alive, their bodies dumped on roadsides or beaches, with the Thai police apparently uninterested.

Sobhraj then took their cash or travellers' cheques and stole their passports. The total number of murders he committed is unknown.