The trial against the young Spaniard Daniel Sancho, accused of the premeditated murder of the Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta, began this Tuesday on the Thai island of Samui, eight months after the crime.
The oral trial began around 9:45 local time (GMT+7) at the Samui provincial court, where dozens of media attended.
In this first session, it is expected that all parties will make an initial statement and testify four witnesses from the Prosecutor’s Office who coincided with Sancho on the nearby island of Phangan, the scene of the events that occurred on August 2.
Specifically, a woman who found the first remains of the deceased in a Phangan landfill, the woman who rented a motorcycle to Sancho on the island, and the managers of the two Phangan hotels where the accused stayed, one of them, are summoned to testify. them in which the alleged murder took place.
In addition to Sancho himself , 29 years old and son of the Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, which gave the case high media interest from the beginning, his father is attending the trial today, in a hearing to which EFE had access.
The trial against Daniel Sancho
The young man is represented by Thai public defender Aprichat Srinuel, and the defense will argue during the trial that Arrieta’s death was due to an accident during a fight, in which Sancho acted in self-defense.
For his part, the prosecutor in charge of the case, Jeerawat Sawatdichai, will try to prove that it was a premeditated murder, and accuses Sancho of this and two other crimes, that of hiding the body and destroying other people’s documentation, due to the passport of the Colombian.
Also present at the trial are the lawyers of Arrieta’s family in Spain, Juan Gonzalo Ospina and Beatriz Uriarte, from the Ospina Abogados law firm, who in a press conference held the day before in Samui stated that “the facts speak for themselves” and They showed their confidence in the Thai Police investigation, questioned by the defense.
Daniel Sancho, who initially confessed to the crime at the Phangan police station, later pleaded before the judge in the preliminary phase of the trial not guilty of premeditated murder, although he accepted the charge of hiding the body, dismembered and scattered in various places in Phangan, including the sea.
The witnesses
The judge is expected to confirm today the calendar of witnesses that both parties will present during the trial, which is expected to be around fifty, in a process that will initially have 16 sessions and will be held until next May 3.
According to the court’s preliminary calendar to which EFE had access, the prosecution witnesses, mostly police and experts, will testify between today and April 19.
The defense witnesses will appear from April 25, when Sancho himself and his father will do so, until May 3, the date on which the accused could make a final statement.
Arrieta’s parents , Ana Marcela Arteaga and Leovaldo José Arrieta, will not finally testify at the trial, as the court has rejected their request to do so by videoconference, as the septuagenarian couple had requested due to the difficulty of traveling to Thailand from Colombia.
Sancho and Arrieta met in 2022 through Instagram due to their common interest in gastronomy and had seen each other several times in Spain before meeting in Phangan.
BY: Ch Fahad Khan Janda
