Daniel Sancho will live with serial killers awaiting royal pardon

“Thailand has never executed a foreigner. We are going to try to Daniel not be the exception to the rule”, have been the words of Carmen Balfagonspokesperson for the Sancho family after learning that the Thai police he will ask for capital punishment for him after concluding the investigation into the murder of the Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta.

Of the more than 330,000 prisoners in this Southeast Asian country, 254 people are on death row, according to data from the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty organization.

The last to receive the lethal injection, which includes the chemicals sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride, was Theerasak Longji in 2018. This Thai prisoner was convicted of robbing and murdering another young man in 2012. He stabbed him 24 times in the chest and took his cell phone and wallet.

The investigators of the Sancho case have requested the maximum punishment for the son of Rodolfo Sancho after confessing to dismembering the doctor after supposedly acquiring tools with which to carry out the “premeditated” crime. A knife, 120 meters of transparent film and three packages of garbage bags were some of the objects that the prisoner acquired, as explained by the Thai police at a press conference.

However, those sentenced to death can appeal to two other courts to commute the sentence and, if that fails, they have the possibility to request clemency from the King of Thailand, Maha Vajiralongkorn. If the monarch accepts, the sentence commutes to life imprisonment. The latter was what happened with the Spanish Artur Segarrawho also murdered and dismembered the consultant from Lleida David Berna in 2016, and was sentenced to death for it. After acknowledging his crime and asking the family for forgiveness, Segarra obtained a pardon from the king in 2020, and is currently serving a life sentence in a Bangkok jail.

The visit of Daniel Sancho’s mother in Koh Samui

This Thursday, after finishing his period of isolation due to the Covid protocol, Daniel Sancho has received a visit from his mother, Silvia Bronchalo, in the Koh Samui prison. The former actress landed in Thailand late this Wednesday afternoon. At the moment, it is unknown how long she will extend her stay in the country.

After the Thai police have closed the investigation, the entire indictment is now in the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office to begin the oral phase of the trial of the grandson of Sancho Grace.