Restaurants serving shark in Samui and Phangan warn tourists that it is a very spicy dish. Few back down. Perhaps they would do so if they knew that the torso of Colombian Edwin Arrieta, dismembered in August on the second of these Thai islands, has never been found.
The plastic surgeon's torso has come to the fore in the latest phase of witness statements from the prosecution and the prosecution. Although this concludes, in an unusual way, tomorrow, with the statement of the Arrieta family's own pro bono lawyer, Juan Gonzalo Ospina, as a witness.
On the opposite bench, the defense of the alleged murderer, Daniel Sancho, has seized on the presence of the rib cage in the summary, disclosed by Tele 5, to continue sowing doubts about the investigation. According to them, there is a catch when a crucial piece "disappears" from the list of forensic evidence after having been included in it. The discovery and inspection of this part of the body could help determine whether or not Daniel Sancho stabbed his friend Arrieta - he denies it - before dismembering him.
Meanwhile, Ospina, who has once again praised the speed with which the police resolved the case, believes beyond any doubt that there was never such a discovery and that the appearance of the thorax in the forensic inventory is due to "a translation problem." . As you may remember, Arrieta's black T-shirt was found and had a cut consistent with a knife wound, although at first it did not appear bloody. An incision in the corresponding part of the chest would square the circle.
This Tuesday, precisely, a forensic doctor and a forensic police officer testified in the morning. From his testimony it is clear that Edwin Arrieta's skull showed a blow to the back of his head with a blunt object or a very strong punch. Sancho himself, a fan of Muay Thai or Thai fighting, admitted having knocked Arrieta down with a hook and then smashing his head against the sink's sink when it bit him. His defense, in any case, says that it was an accident or, at most, involuntary manslaughter in self-defense to avoid rape.
Today's session in the Samui District Court has moved at high speed and, after the midday recess, the police lieutenant colonel who formally detained Sancho and interrogated him on August 5 and 6 testified for several hours. . The questions he asked him and the answers he obtained must be part of what is elucidated in the courtroom, in this anomalous trial behind closed doors and with the express prohibition of leaks and even revealing the name of the judge.
Due to the speed with which the testimony of the twenty-eight prosecution witnesses is being closed, it is not ruled out that Daniel Sancho Bronchalo himself - the confessed dismemberer of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga - could testify this Wednesday, one day earlier than planned. Next, the 25 witnesses summoned by his defense will intervene, starting with his own father, the actor Rodolfo Sancho. His mother, Silvia Bronchalo, is also accompanying the sessions inside the room.
Today, like that August 3 when Daniel Sancho went to the Phangan police station, the air vibrates on the island on the occasion of the Full Moon Festival, which once a month puts it on the international calendar of musical chaos. In that same police station, this Wednesday, the head of the investigation and number two of the police of the province of Surat Thani, Paisan Sangthep, will have to offer a press conference, in which he will presumably defend the police investigation of the case, denigrated by of the Madrid law firms that have taken on the defense of the Sancho family.
Meanwhile, the island of Samui, in the hottest week of the year - which turns the beaches into a tom yam soup - lives completely oblivious to what is in Spain is one of the trials of the year. Each community, to its own. Yesterday, Israelis, for example, celebrated the Passover festival in large numbers in the open air, on the edge of a lake, in the festive center of Chaweng. On its beach, the jugglers continued spitting fire until late into the night, in front of the musical terraces.
Although everyone here heard about the surgeon's crime when it occurred, eight months later, even in law offices relatively close to the court, they are unaware that the trial is currently taking place. His most senior employees are conclusive about the outcome: "The sentence and the years in prison he will serve will depend on the support he has." And they add: "Do you know how many nights Thaksin Shinawatra has spent in prison?" (fugitive former prime minister and billionaire, who turned himself in). "None".
