Nepal's top court to hear appeal by "bikini killer"

KATHMANDU, June 19 (Reuters) Nepal's Supreme Court will hear an appeal by ''bikini killer'' Charles Sobhraj against his life sentence for killing an American backpacker more than 30 years ago, a court official said today.

In August last year, appeal court judges upheld a 2004 verdict by the Kathmandu District Court that jailed Sobhraj for 20 years. He was arrested while gambling in a hotel casino in Kathmandu nearly three years ago.

''The Supreme Court has asked the government to present evidence against him,'' Durga Prasad Dawadi, a top Supreme Court official told Reuters.

''This means the court will reopen the case,'' he added, without saying when the top court would hear the appeal by the 62-year-old French national.

He was convicted of the murder of an American woman whose body was found in a wheat field near the Nepali capital. He had pleaded not guilty.

Sobhraj has already spent 20 years in jail in India for a string of crimes, including murder and robbery.

In 1975, Thailand issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of drugging and killing six women wearing bikinis in the resort of Pattaya, but he was jailed in India before he could stand trial in a Thai court.

Sobhraj has been accused by police in a number of Asian countries of killing more than 20 Western backpackers, usually by drugging their food and drink.

Reuters SHB DB1832