On Wednesday, Nepal's highest court approved the release of Charles Sobhraj, the French serial murderer depicted in the Netflix series "The Serpent" responsible for a series of murders around Asia in the 1970s.

Charles Sobhraj, the French serial murderer, portrayed in the Netflix series "The Serpent" responsible for several murders across Asia in the 1970s, was released and deported by Nepal's highest court on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court determined that 78-year-old Sobhraj, imprisoned in the Himalayan republic since 2003 for the murder of two North American visitors, should be released for health reasons.

A copy of the judgment viewed by AFP stated, "It is not by the prisoner's human rights to hold him in prison indefinitely."

"If there are no other current charges against him that will keep him incarcerated, this court orders his release today and... his return to his homeland within 15 days."

The judgment said that Sobhraj required open-heart surgery and that his release was by the legislation for the compassionate release of bedridden offenders who had already served three-quarters of their term.

In 2017, the legendary killer underwent a five-hour heart operation, and according to the verdict, he continued to get regular therapy for heart illness.

Thursday is likely to mark Sobhraj's release from Kathmandu's Central Jail; a prison official told AFP.

Before he can be released, he must first appear in a lower court for administrative procedures, the official noted.

Backpacker murders

After a rough background and multiple prison sentences in France for petty offenses, Sobhraj began traveling the globe in the early 1970s and eventually arrived in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.

Before drugging, stealing, and murdering his victims — many of whom were Western travelers on a spiritual quest — he would first charm and befriend them.

In 1975, he was suspected of his first murder, that of a young American woman whose body was discovered wearing a bikini on a beach in Pattaya.

He was eventually connected to more than twenty murders.

His victims were strangled, beaten, or burned, and he frequently used their passports to fly to his next target.

Sobhraj's nickname, "The Serpent," was derived from his ability to take different identities to elude prosecution. It became the title of a hit BBC and Netflix television series based on his life.

He was detained in India in 1976 and spent a total of 21 years in prison there, with a brief break in 1986 when he escaped and was recaptured in the Indian coastal state of Goa.

Sobhraj was released in 1997 and retired to Paris, but in 2003 he was apprehended in the tourist district of Kathmandu, Nepal.

The following year, he was given a life sentence for the 1975 murder of American tourist Connie Jo Bronzich. A decade later, he was also found guilty of murdering the Canadian companion of Bronzich.

Sobhraj married Nihita Biswas, 44 years his junior and the daughter of his Nepalese attorney, in prison in 2008.