Terrified passengers look in horror as butcher ‘The Serpent’ takes flight after prison release for serial killing spree

TERRIFIED passengers were pictured looking in horror as French serial killer known as 'The Serpent' takes flight after his release.

Charles Sobhraj was freed from prison in Nepal after nearly 20 years behind bars for the gruesome murder of two tourists in Kathmandu in 1975.

Despite links to at least 20 deaths, he was ordered to return to France within 15 days.

The confessed killer -who was portrayed in the hit show The Serpent- was pictured on the plane flying from Kathmandu to France surrounded by terrified passengers.

Sobhraj insists he is innocent of the murders of two backpackers in Nepal for which he served 19 years in prison.

He said: "When I came in (went to prison), I didn't do anything.

"I am innocent in those cases, ok? So I don't have to feel bad for that, or good.

"I am innocent. It was built on fake documents."

He added: "The district judge, without calling a single witness ... and without giving notice (to) the accused to present an argument, he wrote the verdict.

He continued: "I feel great... I have a lot to do. I have to sue a lot of people. Including the state of Nepal."

The Supreme Court had ordered that Sobhraj, who was sentenced to life in prison, be freed because of poor health, good behavior and having served most of his sentence.

Life sentences in Nepal are 20 years.

The verdict stated: "Keeping him in the prison continuously is not in line with the prisoner's human rights.

“If there is not any other pending cases against him to keep him in the prison, this court orders his release by today and the return to his country within 15 days.”

Sobhraj is linked to the deaths of up to 24 other people, mainly backpackers, between the 1970s and 1980s.

He claims to have killed at least 20 young Westerners who were travelling through Asia by drugging their food or drink.

But his conviction in 2004 for the murders of an American woman, Connie Jo Bronzich, and her Canadian backpacker friend, Laurent Carriere,l was the first time he had been found guilty in court.

Sobhraj was earlier held for two decades in New Delhi's maximum-security Tihar prison on suspicion of theft but was deported without charge to France in 1997.

He resurfaced in September 2003 in Kathmandu.