Daniel Sancho’s long prison term in Thailand after his conviction for the murder of Edwin Arrieta

Darling Arrieta tried to spend Wednesday night in peace. She said to herself: “Lord, we are in your hands.” She slept from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. At that time, she said, her cell phone started ringing. Her lawyer, Adriana Behaine, gave her news that she had been waiting for for more than a year. Daniel Sancho had been sentenced to life imprisonment for the premeditated murder of her brother, Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta, and his subsequent dismemberment on August 2 of last year on the Thai island of Ko Pangan. “I had mixed feelings. The first thing I did was thank God because he did not abandon us. I cried because my brother’s death did not go unpunished, because my parents will have a little peace in the midst of so much pain and because my brother can now rest in peace.”

Arrieta’s sister, who worked with her brother in his medical practice and after his death has also lost her financial support, as have her parents, remembered her relative on Thursday night sitting on a white sofa, while intervening in a Telecinco special on this eventFrom Colombia, he said that during this time he feels like he has lived “a nightmare.” “He had such a horrible death. A death that has marked us for life.”

17,000 kilometres from Colombia, on the Thai island of Samui, the provincial court that tried the Spaniard locked its doors at 10am on Thursday to read out the sentence. The accused and the defence lawyers listened to the decision standing. The convicted man, aged 30, a budding chef and public relations officer at the time of the crime, was barely known in Spain a year ago despite being the son of actor Rodolfo Sancho and grandson of Sancho Gracia. The judge in the case explained to them that the death penalty had been reduced to life imprisonment because of the “beneficial collaboration” that Daniel Sancho provided during the investigation. The court found him guilty of the premeditated murder of the victim, the dismemberment and concealment of the body and the destruction of her passport. It also ordered him to pay compensation of around 107,000 euros to the family of the deceased. The court ruling, which can be appealed, has confirmed the police investigation and the crimes of which the prosecution accused the man.

“He was in tears,” said criminal lawyer Marcos García-Montes, who traveled to Thailand, about the moment when Sancho said goodbye to his parents in court. “The most important thing the judge said was that he is no longer a convicted prisoner.” [en firme]he is a preventive prisoner and has the right to appeal,” added García-Montes. One chapter had just been closed and another had opened on Daniel Sancho’s long prison horizon in Thailand. In the absence of a copy of the sentence, he is already working on a script to prepare his appeal. “I continue to believe in Thai justice. You have to believe and here we are,” insisted García-Montes. The Arrieta family is not considering appealing, according to lawyer Juan Gonzalo Ospina.

Prison change

The first consequence of the sentence, the fine print of which is not yet known, has been the transfer of Daniel Sancho from Samui prison, with just 400 inmates and considered “friendly” within the Thai prison system, to Surat Tani, located in the same province, but on the mainland of the country, about 100 kilometers from the island and about 600 kilometers south of Bangkok. The new penitentiary center has about 5,400 inmates and was built to combat the growing number of prisoners in the country, although, according to several organizations, it also suffers from overcrowding. At its inauguration last April, its control system with modern technology and the good quality of life and medical care for inmates were highlighted, according to the local press. Surat Tani is ranked 11th among the most populated prisons in the country, according to the 2023 report of the International F
ederation for Human Rights. Its inmates have sentences ranging from 15 years in prison to the death penalty, according to its website.

“As long as he is classified as a preventive prisoner, he will not have many problems,” says Javier Casado, director of the +34 foundation, dedicated to caring for Spanish prisoners abroad, with the exception of those with blood crimes and sexual assaults, and familiar with the prisons of this Asian country. This classification will allow the Spaniard to remain in different modules from prisoners with firm sentences, where he would be exposed to greater danger, and to live in better facilities.

The two avenues of appeal that Sancho now has are to file an appeal to the Samui court and to the Supreme Court. When these avenues are exhausted, which usually take about a year, according to sources cited by Efe, the decision will be final.

The finality of the resolution would have two consequences. First, he could be transferred to the dangerous Bang Kwang prison in Bangkok, where foreign prisoners with similar sentences are usually held so that contact with their consulates is more accessible, according to Casado, who visited this centre last July. He could also request a royal pardon.

Maha Vajiralongkorn, who reigns as Rama X, often grants pardons and sentence reductions on his birthday, every July 28, or for other holidays. Artur Segarra, a Spaniard sentenced to death in 2017 for premeditated murder, had his sentence reduced to life imprisonment in 2020 thanks to one of these pardons. To do so, he must have paid compensation to the family and apologized for the harm caused. This royal clemency, which is being processed by the Thai Ministry of Justice, could allow, in Sancho’s case, for the life sentence to be changed to a sentence set by the Department of Justice, and then the possibility of continuing to serve his sentence in a Spanish prison would be more feasible, explains Casado.

Spain and Thailand signed a bilateral agreement in 1983 that allows Spaniards to finish serving their sentence in their country of origin provided that the sentence is final, that there is no other open procedure in Thailand, and that the minimum time established by the Thai justice system has been served in prison. This minimum, which depends on each case, is eight years for those sentenced to life imprisonment, according to Thai regulations. Practice has shown that life imprisonment complicates the process and makes it advisable to change it to one with a specific end date.

By the end of 2023, there were 940 Spaniards imprisoned abroad (823 men and 117 women), according to data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The countries with the highest number of detainees are France, Germany and Morocco and the most frequent crimes, around 50%, are related to small-scale drug trafficking. Last year, the Spanish Government initiated 55 transfer proceedings for convicted persons and 82 people were transferred to Spain, most of them from South American and EU countries.

Ospina, the lawyer for the Arrieta family, explained that the victim’s relatives are confident that the life sentence will “make Sancho think” and that they will not oppose him serving his sentence in Spain. “Almost 13 months have passed and we have not received a pardon,” claimed Darling Arrieta, while holding a rolled rosary in her right hand.