By Sudeshna Sarkar,

Kathmandu, Sep 14 (IANS) The number 13 proved unlucky for yesteryear's crime genius Charles Sobhraj with his final bid for freedom in Nepal's top court Wednesday being stymied for want of time.

For the third time in a row, the French national, convicted of the murder of an American tourist in Nepal over three decades ago, could not have his re-trial started due to technicalities.

With Nepal's courts following the procedure that older cases should be heard first, the judges scheduled to hear the 62-year-old's appeal had to dispose of 11 more suits before Sobhraj's case came up.

Lack of time prevented the trial being re-opened and the court summoning witnesses for cross-examination.

Adept at evading police of several countries, Sobhraj, however, ran up against time in Nepal when he made a visit in 2003, ostensibly to make a documentary and explore legitimate business possibilities.

Nepal's long-winding legal system, compounded by a high number of holidays due to religious festivals, has been delaying his trial since the day of his arrest. After a district court gave him life imprisonment for the murder of American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975 and a court of appeals upheld the sentence, Sobhraj is fighting his final bid for freedom in Nepal's Supreme Court.

However, the final appeal was first delayed by the political turmoil in Nepal when the government of King Gyanendra imposed daytime curfew to thwart protests by the opposition parties. Then a technical error by the court in assigning judges caused an additional delay.

And now, with the case not being heard Wednesday due to lack of time, Sobhraj would have to wait till November - until after the end of the religious festivals of Dashain and Tihar, when Nepal shuts down for a long holiday.

While the suave Sobhraj continues to say he is innocent and had never come to Nepal before 2003, time and luck seem to be conspiring against him in Nepal.

In a surprising move, Kathmandu Police were able to retrieve the nearly three decade-old file on the murder of Bronzich. Along with Bronzich, police say Sobhraj also killed her boyfriend, Canadian Laurent Armand Carriere.

However, after Sobhraj's sensational arrest from a casino in Kathmandu in 2003, Carriere's case file could not be found and the case had to be dismissed.

But in a strange twist, police have since then located the missing file and even if Sobhraj is cleared by the Supreme Court of Bronzich's murder, they could re-open the Carriere killing and continue to keep the French citizen behind bars.

"It's the hand of god," says Bishwa Lal Shrestha, who was the investigating officer in 1975 when Bronzich's badly burnt body was found. "How else could you account for the preservation of 28-year-old files? And how else do you account for the fact that Sobhraj was spotted among the tens of thousands of people in Kathmandu and arrested immediately?"