The lawyers of Edwin Arrieta’s family in Thailand presented this Friday a request for compensation of 30 million bats (about 760,000 euros) before the Samui court, where the trial against the Spaniard Daniel Sancho for the alleged murder of the Colombian surgeon is taking place. .
The Thai co-prosecution lawyers, Mettapon Suwancarern and Lak Wanin, explained to EFE that this is an amount calculated in relation to the economic damage that Arrieta’s death has caused to his parents, who depended on him.
The request, which was already made in the first session of the trial on April 9, was presented again today with the translated documentation requested by the judge before the deadline for accusations closes next Tuesday.
The amount estimated as compensation by the Thai lawyers is almost double the calculation made by the Ospina Abogados firm, which represents the Arrietas in Spain and which estimated it at 410,000 euros (about 16 million bats).
The Thai lawyers acknowledged to the EFE agency that the amount had been increased due to the possibility that it would be contested by the defense and reduced by the judge.
In this sense, Juan Gonzalo Ospina has indicated to EFE today by telephone that the family maintains the claim for the initial amount revealed in March, which has been calculated taking into account the losses and expenses that the death of the 44-year-old surgeon had caused. of course to its environment.
Ospina has also considered that the calculation of the lawyers in Thailand, who act as a co-accusation along with the Prosecutor’s Office, is “hypothetical” since Sancho is insolvent and has no intention of compensating. In this sense, the Spanish lawyer said that what the family wants is for “justice” to be done.
Sancho’s public defender, Apirchat Srinual, told EFE today, for his part, that the defense still has to study the request and decide whether to refute it.
Arrieta’s parents, Ana Marcela Arteaga and Leovaldo José Arrieta, 76 years old and who will not testify since the judge denied their request to do so by videoconference, received about 900 euros per month for their expenses from their son, and “Since his death they have been left in a situation of poverty,” according to the family’s claim, to which he had access.
Sancho is on trial for the alleged premeditated murder and dismemberment of Arrieta last August on the island of Phangan, neighboring Samui.
The 29-year-old Spaniard initially confessed to the crime at the police station, although he later pleaded not guilty and maintains that Arrieta’s death was due to an accident during a fight.
Sancho and Arrieta, who met through Instagram a year earlier, had met on August 2 on the Thai island, the day the alleged crime took place in a hotel room.
