The money that united the ill-fated surgeon Edwin Arrieta and the young promising hamburger, Daniel Sancho, is about to break into the latter's trial for the dismemberment of the former, in the Thai court of Samui.
Sancho's defense, represented by Marcos García Montes, considers that there was an "involuntary homicide", the result of a "fight", but tiptoes over the reason for this. While the Arrieta family's pro bono lawyer, Juan Gonzalo Ospina, believes that the time has come to focus on the economic dispute.
Several of his sources, according to what they tell La Vanguardia, confirm that the plastic surgeon “would have lent 250,000 euros” to his lover. The dates coincide with the start of operations of one of the restaurant businesses that the son of actor Rodolfo Sancho set up in Madrid, according to the lawyer.
Ospina also elaborates on the mystery of the amount that the plastic surgeon was carrying before being dismembered on August 2 on the island of Phangan. According to him, it was not $60,000, as published, much less $80,000. “It was $9,000, which was documented by the police and which a month ago was delivered to the family's legal representation.” That is, to him.
“I made sure that they were hand-delivered to Edwin's sister,” he says. Darlin Arrieta lands precisely this Thursday in Madrid, according to Ospina. "We want the victim's family at trial and we are considering whether the sister can testify in court or, failing that, at the Thai Embassy."
With this move, the Spanish-Colombian lawyer challenges recent statements by García Montes, which deny him even the status of private prosecution. Ospina counterattacks by saying that his firm has hired two Thai lawyers, instead of leaving his client to a court-appointed lawyer.
For this Wednesday, after the long and invigorating break of the Thai New Year, well watered in every sense, the Samui judge had reserved the coldest dish: the testimony of the forensic experts.
Anyone who enters the Bugain Villas bungalows in Phangan, where the crime was committed, has their eyes drawn to the sink. With songs to break your neck.
As it was. As it turned out, Sancho's defense wanted to see a ray of hope yesterday in a forensic testimony: the serious injury to the base of Arrieta's skull would be "compatible with a fight."
Another thing is that, of the ten bungalows, Sancho chose the most secluded and discreet one.
The problem for the online chef is that what he is not compatible with is his own statements, filmed in situ during the police reconstruction, in which he explains how he smashed his friend's skull.
Thailand has surpassed the Songkran festivals, in which its people splash each other with water guns. The government celebrates that this year only 250 drunk motorists have been killed, half as many as five years ago. In Samui, money can make everything muddy or clear.
