Daniel Sancho, the Spaniard sentenced to life imprisonment in Thailand for the premeditated murder of Colombian Edwin Arrieta, will be transferred to the prison in Surat Thani, the prisoner himself told the Efe agency and confirmed the Samui prison, where he has been since he was arrested for the crime just over a year ago. According to the convicted man, son of actor Rodolfo Sancho, the transfer will be made “immediately.”
Sancho will be taken first in the armoured van and then by boat, as the Surat Thani prison is on the mainland, about 100 kilometres away. Samui prison has indicated that the exact time of the transfer is confidential. Surat Thani prison has declined to confirm his next admission.
After hearing the verdict, Sancho asked the judge yesterday to stay in Samui prison, considered “friendly” in Thailand, but this request could not be granted because this centre houses inmates who are awaiting trial or with sentences of less than 15 years. The Surat Thani centre, on the other hand, includes prisoners sentenced to prison from 15 years to the death penalty, according to its website.
Once an inmate has been sentenced and until it is final, the Thai prison system considers him a “preventive prisoner”, according to the legal team in charge of Sancho’s defence, made up of the law firm Balfagón & Chippirrás and the law firm of Marcos García-Montes. Javier Casado, director of the +34 foundation, in charge of assisting Spanish prisoners abroad, explains that inmates classified as preventive prisoners in Thailand have “better living conditions” because they occupy different modules, with better characteristics, and they are also exposed to fewer risks in living with other inmates for whom the prison sentence is final.
Thai authorities were operating two prisons for Sancho’s internment – Surat Thani, about 100 kilometres from the current one, and Nakhon Si Thammarat, 168 kilometres away – both in the same area. Ultimately, the transfer will be made to Surat Thani because the centre that was further away, and which prosecutor Jeerawat Sawatdichai initially indicated as more appropriate for the type of sentence that was finally imposed, did not have the capacity to accommodate him, according to sources from the defence.
The Surat Thani prison – with facilities that are “slightly more modern” than the other one that was considered, according to the defence – is ten times more crowded than the one in Samui. It has 4,730 male and 626 female prisoners, according to figures from the Department of Corrections, and several organisations consider it overcrowded.
What matters most is what happens closer to home. To make sure you don’t miss anything, subscribe.
KEEP READING
Sancho was visited this morning in Samui prison by his father, and was able to meet with the Spanish legal team advising him in the proceedings. His parents accompanied him yesterday to the hearing where the judge read out the sentence condemning him to life imprisonment and he was then taken back to the penitentiary.
The defence has announced that it will appeal, although they are still waiting for the verdict to be notified to them, which will have to be translated. The official deadline is one month, but they can request a translation if they need it. Sancho, who initially confessed to the crime and helped with the reconstruction, maintains that Arrieta died accidentally during a fight in which he was trying to repel a sexual assault by the deceased. The court has found him guilty of premeditated murder, as maintained by the prosecution and the police investigation, and of the crime of hiding the corpse and destroying the passport of the deceased.
#Daniel #Sancho #transferred #Surat #Tani #prison #receiving #life #sentence
