Daniel Sancho, accused of the murder of Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta, remains in preventive detention in Thailand, awaiting trial. The country contemplates the death penalty for crimes like the one he is accused of, and although Sancho hopes to be able to return to Spain, he could only return to our country for the execution of a hypothetical prison sentence if he is not sentenced in Thailand to said sentence. capital, reserved for aggravated homicides and only commuted to life imprisonment.
It should be remembered that there is no extradition agreement between Spain and Thailand so that a Spanish citizen can be tried in our country for the alleged commission of a crime on Thai soil. What does exist is an agreement "regarding the execution of criminal sentences", signed by both countries in 1983, by which the handover of Sancho could be requested once he has been sentenced in Thailand.
With this agreement, Sancho could return to Spain to serve part of the sentence imposed on him -as long as it is not the death penalty, reserved for "aggravated" and "premeditated" homicides, among which could be found the crime of which Sancho is accused.
The investigation into Daniel Sancho has brought a case that revolutionized the international press seven years ago to the forefront of the media. This is the case of the prisoner Artur Segarra, sentenced in the first instance to life imprisonment as the author of the murder and subsequent dismemberment of David Bernat, also a Spaniard, with whom he shared projects to launch a business and whom he had met in the Asian country.
Segarra ended the life of Bernat on the night of January 19, 2016 after a violent argument, which caused the Supreme Court of Thailand to firmly condemn him ten months later after an arduous investigation into capital punishment for kidnapping, robbery and murder. Bernat's premeditated
According to the investigation, Segarra planned the kidnapping of his compatriot with the aim of appropriating the money that the victim had in a bank account in Singapore, before murdering him, dismembering his body and throwing it into the river that crosses Bangkok. Segarra rented a house to hide part of the material used for the murder and even bought a freezer days before the events, where he kept the body.
In a last attempt to save his life, the Spaniard wrote a letter to the Thai monarch, Maha Vajiralongkorn, asking for a pardon. In his letter, Segarra comments that the harsh prison conditions in Thailand have made him reflect on the damage committed, for which he requests the Royal Family to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment or a fixed term in prison. The monarch, finally, commuted his sentence to life imprisonment in 2020, being able to start the procedures to be transferred to Spain next year, after serving eight years of imprisonment in Thailand, in addition to returning 20,000 euros to the family of the victim.
Had he not done so, Segarra would have been executed within 24 hours. According to data from Amnesty International, more than half a thousand prisoners are on death row in the prisons of this Southeast Asian state. Thailand executed a 26-year-old man for aggravated murder on June 18, 2018, the first execution in the country since August 2009, when two men were executed by lethal injection.
The possibility of a delivery to Spain would also be possible if Sancho was convicted of a "non-aggravated" homicide under article 288 of the Thai penal code, which contemplates life imprisonment and sentences of between 15 and 20 years in prison.
