The trial against Daniel Sancho for the murder of Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta is in its final stretch. This coming Tuesday, April 30, the fourth week of sessions will begin at the Koh Samui Provincial Court, where the accused’s long-awaited statement will take place. A testimony that is scheduled for Wednesday, May 1, and with which Rodolfo Sancho’s son will try to convince the judge that he did not commit the alleged murder with premeditation.
In this way, the judicial process will resume its activity after last week the magistrates decided to suspend Thursday’s oral hearing due to the lack of air conditioning in the courtroom due to the electrical failure suffered by the Koh Samui Court, leaving the building without electricity and no air conditioning.
In the middle of the judicial process, the Spanish lawyer for Edwin Arrieta’s family, Juan Gonzalo Ospina, has decided to send a letter to the Spanish ambassador in Thailand in which he expresses his total disagreement with the presence of the vice-consul, Ignacio Vitónica Hamilton, at all sessions of the trial against Daniel Sancho, as revealed this Monday by the media 20minutos.
”The Arrieta family considers that the presence of a Spanish diplomat at the trial, as he is not a direct or indirect relative of the parties nor has any political relevance, could represent an implicit message to the Thai authorities and, therefore, be interpreted as a way to influence the judicial process”, were the words that the lawyer wrote in the letter he had sent to the Spanish ambassador in Bangkok.
”I do not find factual or legal reasons that support the presence of Mr. vice-consul in all sessions of the oral trial, since, although his presence in the first trial session could have been understandable, his attendance at all of them is not, “continued the text to which he had had access the aforementioned medium.
”In my professional experience assisting Spaniards detained and tried in foreign countries, no Spanish diplomat or members of the respective diplomatic missions have ever attended oral proceedings as spectators or international observers,” the lawyer stated. Furthermore, Ospina wonders in the letter why “the vice consul sits next to Sancho’s family” or “if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is aware of this circumstance.”
According to sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs consulted by 20minutos, this is normal practice for cases abroad in which the Spanish defendant could be sentenced to the death penalty.
