Paris: An AFP reporter confirmed that French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who committed numerous murders in the 1970s throughout Asia, arrived in Paris on Saturday after spending nearly 20 years in prison in Nepal.

He should be released for medical reasons and deported to France within 15 days, the top court in Nepal decided on Wednesday. Two days later, he was allowed to leave jail.

He boarded a flight to France via Doha on Friday at the Katmandu airport. He was taken away by border police for "identity checks" after arriving in the French capital, according to an airport source.

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The Netflix and BBC co-produced television series "The Serpent" included a biography of Sobhraj.

Sobhraj, who was born in Saigon to an Indian father and a Vietnamese mother who later wed a Frenchman, began an international life of crime and, in 1975, found himself in Thailand.

He would befriend his victims, many of whom were Western backpackers travelling on the hippie trail in the 1970s, while posing as a gem trader before drugging, robbing, and killing them.

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He was eventually connected to more than 20 murders after being accused of killing a young American woman whose body was discovered on a beach in 1975.

He was imprisoned in India for 21 years after being apprehended there in 1976, with the exception of a brief escape attempt in 1986 when he drugged the prison guards. In the Goa region of India, he was apprehended once more.

After being freed in 1997, Sobhraj lived in Paris and gave journalists paid interviews before returning to Nepal in 2003.

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Sobhraj was given a life sentence by a Nepali court the following year for the 1975 murder of American tourist Connie Jo Bronzich. He was also found guilty of killing Bronzich's Canadian companion ten years later.