Thai justice has sentenced Spaniard Daniel Sancho to life in prison for the murder of Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta. The sentence was announced on Thursday, just over a year after the crime was committed, amid significant media anticipation.
Access to the courtroom was very restricted, even more so than during the trial that was held behind closed doors in the same court from April 9 to May 2. Only the defendant, 30, his parents, Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho and investment analyst Silvia Bronchalo, representatives of the Spanish embassy in Thailand, the prosecutor and Thai defense lawyers were allowed to enter the room and the co-prosecutor, who represents Arrieta’s family.
The sentence has already had to be reviewed by a higher court in Surat Thani (the province to which Samui belongs). Now, the parties have one month to decide on the appeals, a deadline that could be extended according to the magistrates. The appeals are filed in writing with the Samui court without witnesses or appearances, so Sancho will no longer have to appear, with the possibility of making up to two appeals (one before the Court of Appeal and another before the Supreme Court), a procedure that usually lasts about a year.
The prosecutor’s office accused Sancho of the premeditated murder of Arrieta, which he tried to prove during the trial with dozens of pieces of evidence and witnesses, including the purchase of knives and a saw days before the alleged crime, as well as the dismemberment of the surgeon and the theft of his passport.
The crime was committed on the Thai tourist island of Phangan on August 2, 2023. Sancho, who had initially confessed to the murder before the Phangan police, later maintained and during the trial that the death of Arrieta, then 44 years old and with whom he left in Phangan on the day of the events, was due to an accident during a fight in which he was defending himself against an alleged attempted sexual assault. Of the three charges brought against him, the Spaniard only admitted to dismembering Arrieta, a crime punishable by up to one year in prison.
