The son of Rodolfo Sancho remains in preventive detention in Koh Samui prison awaiting trial for the alleged murder of the Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta. This Monday, some unpublished images of the Spanish chef came to light two days before the tragic event that places Daniel as a spectator in a Muay Thai fight.
In them, the grandson of Sancho Grace, who has been practicing Thai boxing for years, is sitting in the stands like one of them. Wearing a white T-shirt and his hair down, he records every detail of the fight with his mobile phone. Before the match ends, Daniel looks for someone in the audience and at a certain moment, he grabs his backpack and leaves the premises.
The images, broadcast in TardeAR, were taken on July 31, two days before Arrieta’s death, and are key to Daniel’s defense. With them they intend to demonstrate that the version he gave to the police about the reason for his trip to Thailand is real: he wanted to learn more about Muay Thai, a sport that he had practiced in Spain for years. They thus argue that he did not travel with the purpose of killing Edwin and that, therefore, his murder was not premeditated, but accidental.
Thai prosecutor speaks
The Prosecutor’s Office presented charges last Thursday in the Koh Samui Court but the hearing was suspended due to Daniel’s request to have a Spanish translator in the room: “I feel helpless,” he said. It will be next November 13 when the act is repeated and the judge dates the start of the judicial process. The figure of this translator has become a key element for Daniel’s defense, since his lawyers affirm that his absence so far could invalidate all the previous investigation and documentation: Daniel’s alleged confession and the reconstruction of the crime.
The prosecution, however, has already responded to this assumption: “He accepted a translator in English and justice is not obliged to translate all documents.” And they added: “Thai law is obliged to provide a translator in the language required by the defendant, but in Thailand and its justice system they are not expressly obliged to translate all documents because the official language is Thai.”
It does not seem that this defense is going to prosper. The prosecution has been blunt: “There are two clear and direct confessions from Daniel Sancho himself, a witness who saw him with bags on a kayak… There is no exact cause of death, nor is there a single bruise from blows compatible with death. or a fight and there is the dismemberment of the body with the same knives that Daniel Sancho bought.