Daniel Sancho a is in provisional prison after having confessed to the murder of the Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta. The son of actor Rodolfo Sancho, 29, is "relaxed", according to his lawyer, Khun Anan, who has been able to visit him in the Koh Samui prison, to where he was transferred on Monday morning.
"I think he's relaxed. He knows what he did, I have explained the process to him (...) He wants to plan how to live in here," Anan told a group of journalists who gathered at the entrance to the prison, where Sancho entered after pleading guilty before a judge from the neighboring island of Koh Phangan of Arrieta's murder.
This is the first solo meeting between the Spaniard and the lawyer, hired by the young man's family, who until yesterday had been represented by legal counsel. Anan assured that he would repeat this meeting in the coming days, since the Spaniard is in a ten-day isolation period due to covid-19, during which he can only be visited by lawyers. Anan did not fail to reiterate that his client was "calm", revealing that there were also "many foreigners", so he could "find someone to talk to".
As the lawyer informed the media gathered there, this period of preventive detention can last up to 84 days, with Thai legislation contemplating up to seven terms, of twelve days each, for it. During this period, the country's police must finalize the investigation report, and could call Sancho to testify if he deems it necessary.
Sancho, 29, pleaded guilty to charges of premeditated murder and concealment of evidence of a crime, filed Monday by a Koh Samui provincial court judge, who ordered the young man to be placed in pretrial detention. Sancho had already pleaded guilty to the murder and dismemberment of Arrieta at the Koh Phangan police station last Saturday, where the alleged crime would have taken place.
Arrieta, a 44-year-old plastic surgeon from the Colombian town of Lorica, in the department of Córdoba (north); he arrived in Koh Phangan on August 2, where he met Sancho, whom he had known for some time and who met him upon his arrival.
On the night of August 3, just 24 hours after his arrival, it was Daniel Sancho himself who reported that the Colombian had disappeared. At that time, the young man began to be questioned as a suspect, to be arrested last Saturday for the alleged murder of Arrieta, who ended up confessing to the police.
According to the conversations that Daniel Sancho had with a Spanish journalist a few hours ago, it seems that his objective would be to give "coverage" to the case in order to return to Spain and serve his sentence here. However, Sancho could only be handed over to Spain for the execution of a hypothetical prison sentence if he is not sentenced in Thailand to the death penalty, reserved for aggravated homicides and usually commuted to life imprisonment.
