By Sudeshna Sarkar,

Kathmandu, Sep 12 (IANS) After a long wait in a high-security prison cell in Kathmandu, yesteryear crime maestro Charles Sobhraj will finally make his last bid for freedom in Nepal Wednesday, taking on eyewitnesses who could nail or acquit him of a three-decade-old murder.

On Wednesday, the French national's appeal against a life term for the murder of an American tourist in Nepal in 1975 will be heard by the Supreme Court - if he is lucky.

Dubbed the 'Bikini Killer' by the tabloid press in the 1970s because of allegations of murders of western tourists, many of them women he had befriended, Sobhraj's phenomenal luck deserted him three years ago.

The man who had escaped from high-security prisons in Afghanistan and France was spotted gambling at a casino in Kathmandu, where he was wanted for the murder of American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich and her Canadian boyfriend Laurent Armand Carriere. Subsequently, he was arrested in a dramatic raid and charged with double murder.

In 2004, Kathmandu's district court found him guilty of killing Bronzich, the first murder conviction in his sensational criminal career spanning over seven countries, and sentenced him to jail for life.

Protesting his innocence, Sobhraj appealed against the verdict but lost the second round too as the appellate court upheld the earlier sentence.

Now the 62-year-old is waging his last battle for freedom, having challenged the appeal in Nepal's apex court and the judges agreeing to reopen the case.

On Wednesday, the judges are expected to set a date for beginning the cross-examination of witnesses who police say had interacted with Sobhraj in 1975.

They include Chandra Bir Rai, who was deputy inspector general of police in September 1975 when the charred body of Bronzich was found outside the capital. Investigations led police to an Oriental-looking, well-dressed and seemingly affluent man staying at the luxurious Soaltee hotel in the capital.

Though the suspect said he was a Dutch tourist from Thailand, Henricus Bintanja, Nepal police say it was Sobhraj travelling on the passport of Bintanja, whom he had murdered a week ago along with his girlfriend.

Rai had been present in the Kathmandu police station where Sobhraj was called for questioning and cautioned him not to leave the city without informing police. Rai was also the officer who signed the letter sent to the home and foreign ministries, asking them to request the Indian government to extradite Sobhraj to Nepal after the latter was imprisoned in India for manslaughter and robbery.

The investigating officer at that time, Bishwa Lal Shrestha, could also be called as a witness. Ironically, Shrestha, who had been following the case arduously, is now an independent lawyer who has been appointed by Bronzich's father to fight Sobhraj's appeal.

A third man, Purna Bahadur Maharjan, could also be summoned as a witness. Maharjan was a driver employed by a car rental agency, Gorkha Travels, from whom "Bintanja" hired a car in 1975. The car took Bintanja and Bronzich around and Maharjan could be a crucial witness.

Strangely enough, the police did not call witnesses during the two earlier trials. It was Sobhraj who kept on insisting that they be summoned and he be allowed to cross-examine them.

Now finally, he will have his wish granted and it remains to be seen if it will save him or sentence him.

However, he will also need a strong dose of luck, which seems to have deserted him in Nepal. The date for cross-examinations will be set Wednesday provided his case is among the first ones. Twice this year, his final appeal could not come up for hearing due to lack of time and a technical error.

Also, even if his case is heard Wednesday, the cross-examination will not begin immediately. The court will close soon for two of Nepal's major festivals, Dashain and Tihar, and it will be probably only in November that the complicated procedure will finally start.