A French serial killer known as The Serpent, convicted of several tourist murders in Asia in the 1970s, has left Nepal after being released from prison.
Charles Sobhraj, 78, was freed after a court ruled in favour of his age and good behaviour.
He spent 19 years in jail in Nepal for killing two North Americans in 1975.
Sobhraj had preyed on mostly young Western backpackers on the hippie trail in India and Thailand.
He was deported to France on Friday and has reportedly been barred from returning to Nepal for at least 10 years.
The notorious killer, whose story was covered in the TV drama The Serpent, had been concurrently serving two sentences, each 20 years, in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, for the 1975 murder of an American woman, Connie Jo Bronzich, and her Canadian backpacker friend, Laurent Carriere.
He had been convicted in two separate trials - most recently in 2014, when he was sent to a high-security prison for murdering Carriere.
But Nepal's Supreme Court ordered Sobhraj's release on Wednesday after his legal team successfully filed a petition claiming he should be given a concession on his prison term for health reasons.
A provision in Nepalese law also allows inmates who have shown good character and completed 75% of their jail term to be released.
"Keeping him in the prison continuously is not in line with the prisoner's human rights," the verdict read, according to AFP, citing regular treatment for heart disease as another factor in his release. He had heart surgery in 2017.
In an interview with AFP ahead of his departure on Friday, Sobhraj said he felt "great" about being given his freedom, but would be seeking legal action against the Nepalese government.
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