Daniel Sancho, before his sentence: “I am prepared for the best and the worst”

Spaniard Daniel Sancho says he is “prepared for the best and the worst” ahead of the sentencing on August 29 to determine whether or not he is guilty of the premeditated murder of Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta on an island in Thailand last year. Sancho faces a request from the Prosecutor’s Office for the death penalty.

“I am prepared for the best and the worst,” Sancho told EFE on August 22 in Samui prison, in southern Thailand, when asked how he will face the verdict, although he was optimistic and convinced that the judge will rule out the possibility that Arrieta’s death was due to premeditated murder. The element of premeditation is key because, if it is not proven, Sancho could not be sentenced to death.

The Spaniard believes that during the trial “it became clear that it was an accident,” referring to Arrieta’s death on August 2, 2023 on the Thai island of Koh Pangan, and cited the forensic evidence presented by the defense that, according to him, would show that the death was due to a fight. The defendant, 29, and Arrieta, 44, had agreed to meet that day on the aforementioned island, a very touristy place known for hosting the full moon party, in which the beaches are filled with people celebrating with music until dawn. Sancho arrived a couple of days before the meeting and planned to stay a few weeks in the area. The next day he reported that his friend had disappeared. The Spaniard was formally arrested two days later.

Although he initially confessed to the crime, Sancho has since claimed that Arrieta died accidentally, as a result of a fight. In addition to the charges of premeditated murder and destroying the victim’s passport, charges to which Sancho has pleaded not guilty, he is accused of dismembering her and hiding the body, something he has admitted.

The trial against Sancho, son of actor Rodolfo Sancho and grandson of another famous actor, the late Sancho Gracia, concluded in May with a final statement in which the defendant lamented the harm he had caused to the victim’s family. “I feel sorry that a life has been lost and that parents have lost a son,” Sancho told the court. “I feel sorry that his family was not able to bury him properly. I feel sorry for what I did after his death,” he added in a hearing that was held behind closed doors and amid an impressive media display for an almost secret trial.

The prosecution, however, has insisted throughout the trial on Sancho’s lack of signs of remorse. During the trial, they raised questions that they understood to be unresolved, such as the reasons why he did not ask for help when he found himself in that situation, when he considered that Arrieta had died or why he dismembered the victim.