The Madrid Prosecutor’s Office has submitted a letter to the judge in which it opposes requesting the Thai authorities to extradite Daniel Sancho so that he can be tried for another case that he has open in Spain. This is a crime of injuries in which the date for holding the oral hearing has not yet been set.
Rodolfo Sancho’s son has been in preventive prison in Thailand since August 7 for the murder and dismemberment of the Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrietaa crime that he confessed to before the Thai Police.
In his writing, the prosecutor argues that there are “alternative” measures to the extraction that would allow the trial to be held and also explains that “there is no evidence” that the accused’s stay in Thailand seeks to escape from Spanish Justice because “he has always been available to the Court in all the locations received”.
Sancho Gracia’s grandson had a procedure open for a crime of injuries that occurred in 2019 in which the Prosecutor’s Office had requested in its indictment a sentence of one year in prison, as well as payment of the civil liability derived from the commission. of the crime.
According to the writing to which you have had access Europapressthe accused, around 4 a.m. on November 9, 2019, was in the vicinity of José Abascal Street in this capital, when “at a certain moment he proceeded to get into a taxi vehicle that was there, without respecting the queue that had formed to use the public service”.
At that time, he was reprimanded by JC. After that, “the accused, with the intention of injuring, proceeded to punch him in the head, causing injuries that took twelve days to heal.” The injured man suffered aesthetic damage due to the breakage of his upper right incisor tooth.
The prosecutor qualifies the facts as a crime of injuries provided for and punishable in article 147.1 of the Penal Code. The accused is responsible for the aforementioned crime as author in accordance with articles 27 and 28.1 of the penal code.
On November 30, 2021, the Investigative Court No. 21 of Madrid issued an order to open the oral trial, which was notified to the accused personally on January 18, 2022, so the only thing left was to set the date for the start of the hearing. oral.
Procedures for extradition
Without any action having been taken by the Court for a year and a half, on September 8, the procedural representation of the accused indicated that Silvia Bronchalo’s son has been in provisional prison since August in Thailand, so He requested that the corresponding procedures be carried out to request active extradition and surrender to the Spanish judicial authority.
For its part, the Prosecutor’s Office recalls that in the procedure opened in Spain, no reasoned order of imprisonment has been issued in any procedural phase, “nor is it possible at the present time to request it.” And this for two main reasons.
The first is because the Criminal Procedure Law requires that, in order to grant provisional detention, the maximum sentence imposed for the crime be equal to or greater than two years.
In this sense, it adds that the case has been paralyzed since February 2, 2022, “which allows us to advance a probable application of the mitigating circumstance of undue delays” that would prevent reaching two years in the request for the sentence in any case.
“Nor can we forget, furthermore, that the penalty imposed for this crime may alternatively be a fine,” he states. The second reason is because the accused has always been available to the Spanish judicial authorities when he has been required to do so.
No requirement
For the Prosecutor’s Office, there is no requirement to request his extradition, such as if he had fled to a foreign country.
At the same time, he alleges that given that his presence has not been required since he was notified of the indictment and that the trial has not been scheduled, “there is no evidence that his stay in Thailand is due to a desire to escape from the action.” of justice.”
The Public Ministry recalls that, “currently”, the only agreement in force between Spain and Thailand is the Agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Spain and the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand, on cooperation in matters of execution of criminal sentences, “which “It is only applicable, in accordance with its article II, to situations in which the person whose transfer is requested has been declared guilty and sentenced.”
Hence, any request for international cooperation would be made under the principle of reciprocity. Based on this principle, the Prosecutor’s Office maintains that other instruments of international cooperation with the Kingdom of Thailand outside of extradition can be used in order to achieve the availability of the accused in the procedure, since, being in a situation of provisional detention , “is easily located by the judicial authorities of said country.”
Among them would be the holding of the trial through the videoconference system, the temporary transfer of the detainee for the sole purposes of his trial in Spain or “any alternative measure, taking into account the principle of reciprocity that would be in force between both kingdoms.”