The Spanish Daniel Sancho was sentenced to life imprisonment for the premeditated murder of the Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta and two other crimes he is accused of, according to the sentence read this morning by the Thai judge. Sancho initially confessed to the crime to police, but later claimed during the trial that Arrieta’s death was the result of an accident during a fight. The judge found Sancho guilty of the victim’s death and dismemberment.
The judge of the Samui Provincial Court (southern Thailand) read out the judgment at 10:55 a.m. local time (5:55 a.m. Spanish time). The court revealed that the charge of premeditation She faces the death penalty, but the defendant’s cooperation and evidence provided by the defense led to the sentence being reduced by a third of the maximum, making it life imprisonment.
The sentence of case Daniel Sancho sentenced the Spanish chef, son of actor Rodolfo Sancho, to life in prison for premeditated murder by surgeon Edwin Arrieta on August 2, 2023 on the island of Phangan, for his subsequent dismemberment and the theft of the Colombian’s passport.
His sentence being more than 15 years, I have to go to a new prison. There are several options for his destination. It is suggested that he will most likely end up in Bang Kwang Prison, known as the big tigerand which happens to be one of the most dangerous on the planet due to its conditions, described as subhuman. He was until now in Suran Thani prison, in the province of Koh Samui, where the murder took place.
Open Deadline for Resources
The judge also ordered Sancho to pay Arrieta’s family compensation of 4,424,000 baht (113,000 euros). Now, after reading the sentence against Daniel Sancho, a deadline for appealing will be set. During the reading, during which the lawyers and the defendants had to remain standing, the judge explained the possibility of submit two callsone before the Court of Appeal and the other later before the Supreme Court.
The prosecutor in charge of the case, Jeerawat Sawatdichai, said: EFE leaving the court I was “satisfied” because Sancho had been found guilty of the three charges he had presented at the trial, held last April before the same court.
Sancho, 30, attended the hearing accompanied by his father and mother, the Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho and the investment analyst Silvia Bronchaloas well as the Thai public defender who represents him in the Asian country, Apichart Srinual.
Also present at the session, among others, was lawyer Nattha lake Jongratwanin for the co-prosecutor, who represents the victim’s family in Thailand. Arrieta’s parents, Leovaldo José Arrieta and Ana Marcela ArteagaThey did not go to Thailand and followed the sentence of their native Colombia.
Sancho defends accidental death
Daniel Sancho He spent more than a year in preventive detention at the prison of Ko Samui, in Thailand. Sancho’s defense focused throughout the process on proving that the murder It was not premeditated, but it was a accidentThe murder charges also included concealing the body and destroying other people’s documents. Rodolfo Sancho’s son tried to make Arrieta’s remains disappear, some of which have not yet been found, and destroyed the surgeon’s passport.
For Daniel Sancho, avoiding the penalty of premeditated murder was essential to avoid the death penalty and life imprisonment. The chef’s defense team, made up of lawyer Marcos García Montes and criminologists Ramon Chipirras And Carmen Balfagon, They have shown optimism in the months since the trial, stressing the difficulty of proving premeditation.
Sancho has maintained since the beginning of the trial that Arrieta’s death was an accident, following a blow he gave her in self-defense when the surgeon tried to sexually assault her. The lack of premeditation would have resulted in an eight-year prison sentence. García Montes has repeatedly stated that, in this case, Sancho could be back in Spain in three years to finish serving the remainder of his sentence.
The trial against Daniel Sancho began on April 9 and ended on May 2. Four weeks of process and 50 testimonies in which the Thai Prosecutor’s Office and the private accusation of the family of Edwin Arrieta They argued that it was a premeditated murder. Sancho took an active part in the trial, during which he was allowed to ask questions directly to the witnesses.
The Murder of Edwin Arrieta
Daniel Sancho and Edwin Arrieta They met on the island of Koh Phangan to celebrate the full moon festival July 31, 2023. Sancho was caught on camera in a supermarket the next day buying a saw, knives, detergent and other utensils. It was also the last day Arrieta contacted his family in Colombia. Another security camera recorded the two men on a motorcycle.
Arrieta was last seen alive with Sancho on the beach that day. August 2. According to the case instruction, the Spaniards killed the surgeon that night in his bungalow, He dismembered him with the tools he had bought the day before and got rid of the body, distribute it in bags and distribute it in different parts of the island. Sancho rented a kayak for which he paid $1,000 to throw some pieces into the sea and took others to a landfill.
THE Arrieta Family He began to suspect that something was wrong. day 3after two days without news of the surgeon. They contacted Sancho, who claimed not to know anything about him. The family asked the cook to report the disappearance and Sancho He went to the police station. A man found a bag with The Arrieta Basin at the dump the same day and Thai police opened an investigation.
Officers found human remains during an initial search of August 4th. At that point, Sancho became the prime suspect. The Spaniard initially assured that he had indeed been with Arrieta, but that he had not heard from him since the day before.
Daniel Sancho confessed to the dismemberment the next day, the August 5th. He said Arrieta died accidentally and he dismembered him.. Police found the kayak the Spaniard had used to dispose of the remains. Day 6Sancho assured that he felt threatened by the surgeon. “He was obsessed with me,” said the son of Rodolfo Sancho, but he denied having a romantic relationship with Arrieta. On the same day, the police and the cook reconstructed the events in different parts of the island.
Daniel Sancho testified for the first time before the judge on August 7thwho ordered preventive detention. Thai authorities charged him with premeditated murder and concealing evidence and he was sent to the island of Ko Samui. Since then, Sancho has remained in prison on the Thai island.
