In a trial that promises to be high-profile due to the accused's family origin, tomorrow in the thai island of samuithe young Spaniard Daniel Sancho He will sit in the dock.
The Thai Prosecutor's Office will try to prove that Sancho premeditatedly murdered the Colombian doctor, Edwin Arrieta, on August 2, while the defense will argue that it was an accident. Arrieta's body was dismembered and scattered throughout various places on the island, including the sea.
The accused, 29 years old, is the actor's son Rodolfo Sancho and Silvia Bronchalo, and takes eight months in provisional prison. The trial will begin with the witnesses called by the prosecutor of the case, Jeerawat Sawatdichai, who will summon around thirty people – including police and experts – from the April 9 and 23 and will present a similar amount of evidence to support his accusations.
For his part, the Thai court-appointed lawyer defending Sancho, Aprichat Srinuel, will call around twenty-five witnesses, including Sancho himself and his father, a psychologist and a forensic expert starting on April 24.
Sancho is scheduled to declare on April 25.
The Thai Prosecutor's Office accuses Sancho of three crimes: premeditated murder, concealment of the body and destruction of other people's documentation (by Arrieta's passport). The prosecution's evidence includes forensic and DNA reports, and Sancho's acquisition of knives, a saw, garbage bags and cleaning products on August 1 on the island of Phangan, a day before the incident took place. the alleged murder and dismemberment, which he considers incriminating elements.
Sancho and Arrieta, a Colombian plastic surgeon who died at the age of 44, met in 2022 through Instagram and agreed to meet in the tourist town of Phangan on August 2, when the alleged crime took place in a villa rented by the Spaniard, who arrived before to the island, on July 31.
Sancho's defense
The defense, for its part, will seek to demonstrate that Arrieta's death was accidental and that the Spaniard was the subject of threats and harassment by the victim, and to challenge part of Sancho's confession of the premeditated murder when he was formally arrested on December 5. August in Phangan for alleged irregularities during the process.
One of the main arguments of the defense, which will have the support of the Spanish law firm Marcos García-Montes and the Bafalgón-Chipirrás Legal Criminological Office, will be to allege that Arrieta's autopsy does not offer a conclusive cause of death, as it was not found determining parts of the body such as the thorax.
Although Sancho initially confessed to the crime before Phangan police, he later pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder in November, although he did then accept the charge of hiding the body.
Premeditated murder is among more than 30 crimes for which the Thai criminal code carries the death penalty. Although if dictated, this is usually commuted to a lower sentence such as life imprisonment.
The family of the Colombian surgeon will also demand civil liability compensation of 410,000 euros from the young Spaniard before the Thai Justice. The sentence against Sancho is expected to be handed down several weeks after the trial concludes.
Agency / EFE / Thailand
#witnesses #testify #Daniel #Sancho39s #trial #death #Colombian #doctor