KATHMANDU: Nepal’s top court ordered on Wednesday the release and deportation of Charles Sobhraj, the French serial killer portrayed in the Netflix series “The Serpent” who was responsible for a string of murders across Asia in the 1970s.

The Supreme Court ruled Sobhraj, 78, who has been in prison in the Himalayan republic since 2003 for murdering two North American tourists, should be freed on health grounds.

“Keeping him in the prison continuously is not in line with the prisoner’s human rights,” read a copy of the verdict seen by AFP. “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 needed open heart surgery and his release was in keeping with the law allowing the compassionate discharge of bedridden prisoners who had already served three-quarters of their sentence, the verdict added.

The notorious murderer underwent a five-hour cardiac operation in 2017 and the verdict said he remained in regular treatment for heart disease.

Sobhraj will likely be freed from Kathmandu’s Central Jail on Thursday, an official at the prison told AFP. He will first have to appear in a lower court for administrative formalities before he can walk free, the official added.