Charles Sobhrai, a French serial killer who allegedly killed several Western tourists in the 1970s and 1980s, was released from a Nepalese prison on Friday after nearly two decades behind bars, Reuters reported. He inspired the BBC/Netflix series Snake.

The 78-year-old French national is suspected of killing more than 20 Western tourists on a “hippie trail” through Asia, usually by putting drugs in their food or drinks.

He left Nepal on Friday evening on a flight to Doha, bound for Paris, said Katak Rawal, an airport spokesman in Kathmandu.

Nepal has banned Sobhray from entering the country for 10 years, said Pradashani Kumari, acting director general of the immigration department.

The court decided to release him from prison, where he had served 19 years, citing his advanced age.

After his release, Sobhray told the AFP news agency: “I feel great… I have a lot of cases. I have to sue a lot of people. Including the state of Nepal.”

Sobhraj has been in a maximum security prison in Kathmandu since 2003, when he was arrested on charges of murdering American tourist Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975.

In Thailand, he was nicknamed the “bikini killer” and the “snake” for his uncanny ability to elude the police and escape. It inspired a TV series of the same name created in 2021 by the BBC and Netflix. The film (The Serpent) tells the story of how Charles Sobhray spent years evading the law throughout Asia, allegedly drugging, robbing and killing tourists along the so-called “Hippie Trail”. Former Dutch diplomat Hermann Knippenberg cooperated with the authorities to arrest him.

While in prison, Sobhraj married Nihita Biswas, a Nepalese woman 44 years his junior, in 2008.

“I am happy and have a lot of respect for our judiciary and the Supreme Court,” Sobhraj’s mother-in-law Sakuntal Thapa told ANI after the news of his release was announced.

A few years later, he was also found guilty of murdering Bronzich’s Canadian friend, Laurent Carrier.