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Kathmandu: Prosecutors in Nepal charged confessed serial killer Charles Sobhraj today with the murder of two backpackers in 1975, court officials said.
Officials at Katmandu District Court said a preliminary hearing will determine whether there is sufficient evidence to go to trial.
Sobhraj is suspected in the unsolved 1975 murders of two backpackers - Connie Jo Bronzich of Santa Cruz, California, and Laurent Ormond Carrierre of Manitoba, Canada - whose charred bodies were found on the capital's outskirts, police say.
"The government case is very weak," Sobhraj's lawyer Sanjeev Ghimire said. "It should be over in a day or two and my client will be freed."
Sobhraj was arrested at a casino in Kathmandu last month and charged with immigration violations for allegedly using a fake passport to enter Nepal in 1975.
Sobhraj was born in Vietnam during French rule and claims French citizenship. Since his arrest, police have questioned him about the 1975 murders.
A judge last week said it wasn't necessary to keep Sobhraj in custody over the immigration charges, but police promptly arrested him again after he signed the release papers.
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