There is already a date for the trial against Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, imprisoned since August 5 for killing and dismembering his friend Edwin Arrieta on the Thai island of Phangan. The hearing will take place from April 9 to May 3 next year in the provincial court on the neighboring island of Samui and will feature at least 57 witnesses for the prosecution and the defense. Thai authorities have maintained since the beginning of the case that Sancho, 29, son of actor Rodolfo Sancho, premeditatedly murdered Arrieta, the 44-year-old Colombian plastic surgeon with whom the Spaniard had relations, an accusation that could lead to the death penalty (a punishment that in most cases is not carried out and is commuted to life imprisonment). The accused has pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder, but has admitted to the crime of disappearance of a corpse, given the accumulated evidence that he cut up Arrieta's body and distributed it throughout the island and by sea. Most of the body has not been found, nor has the victim's passport.
The trial date was set this morning at a hearing held in Samui, with the presence of the accused and his mother, investment analyst Silvia Bronchalo. After three hours of arguments, the judge set the trial date, how many witnesses each side will have and other details. Thus, the Prosecutor's Office will have 28 witnesses in the trial, while the lawyers representing Arrieta's family have called two to testify, including the victim's parents, who only count as one. The defense, for its part, will appear with at least 27 witnesses, although it is not ruled out that it may include some more before the trial is held, which will take place on the island of Samui, where Daniel Sancho has been in prison since the past. August 7th.
On the first day of the trial, both the defense, the prosecutor and the lawyers representing the victim's family will be able to make a five-minute opening statement, after which the testimony of witnesses will begin, which will be in person. The first to testify will be the witnesses of the Prosecutor's Office, who will give way to those summoned by Sancho's lawyer, the public defender Aprichat Srinuel. Once this process is finished on May 3, the parties will be able to make a final argument and a new date will be set to read the ruling, as established today by the judge during a closed-door hearing. In his last appearances before the judge, the young Spaniard has insisted that Arrieta's death was due to a fight and that it was the victim who started it, according to a source close to the case.
Sancho, whose case has had a huge impact in the Spanish press, has been in provisional detention in Samui prison since August 7. Two days earlier, he had been arrested on the neighboring island of Phangan, after confessing to the murder and dismemberment of the Colombian surgeon, whose remains he scattered in garbage containers on the island and threw into the sea. Sancho and Arrieta, the deceased 44-year-old Colombian plastic surgeon, had known each other since last year and met in Phangan on August 2, the day the alleged crime took place.
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