Charles Sobhraj has denied that he is a serial killer.
Charles Sobhraj has denied committing any murders
The French murderer, dubbed The Serpent, has admitted to drugging and stealing from at least 150 victims but has vowed to prove that he has never killed.
In an interview with the French TV channel TF1, Sobhraj, 78, said: "I am not a serial killer. That is an affirmation and I will prove it."
The Serpent preyed on Western tourists in Asia during the 1970s and was convicted in 2004 by a Nepalese court of the 1975 murders of an American backpacker and her Canadian travelling companion.
He was released from prison in Nepal last December on account of his old age and good behaviour. His life of crime was depicted in the BBC TV series 'The Serpent' in 2021.
Sobhraj was also found guilty of murdering two people in India but the conviction was overturned and he was also wanted in Thailand in connection with the murders of six women - who were all found on a beach in Pattaya.
The criminal says that he targeted tourists for their money and passports but never turned to murder.
Ahead of the publication of his autobiography, Sobhraj recalled: "It was always tourists or businessmen. I preferred businessmen. We spent the day together and towards the evening we'd have a drink and I put a drug in their glass.
"I put the right dose so that they went to sleep when they got back to their rooms and that is when I took their belongings, generally money or something else.
"I always travelled with a false passport. In those days you could change the photo in 20 minutes. It was very, very easy, even American passports."