Charles Sobhraj, the notorious French serial killer of Indian and Vietnamese parentage, was deported to France on Friday, hours after being released from a prison here where he served most of his sentence for a string of murders of backpackers across Asia in the 1970s.

Sobhraj, 78, was released from the Central Jail in Kathmandu and handed over to the immigration authorities to process his travel documents, officials said, two days after the Supreme Court ordered that he be released and deported to his home country.

Fanindra Mani Pokharel, joint secretary and spokesperson of the Ministry of Home Affairs, said Sobhraj will be barred from entering Nepal for the next ten years.

“The home ministry has deported Charles Sobhraj, barring him from entering Nepal for the next ten years,” Pokharel was quoted as saying by The Kathmandu Post newspaper.

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Sobhraj will first fly to Doha and then to Paris on Qatar Airways flight QR647.

(With inputs from PTI)