Among the many nationalities that swarm the island of Samui, the Spanish are far from being the most numerous or the most conflictive. However, the unprecedented arrival of audiovisual media – and some newspapers – from the other side of the world could change the data.
In Koh Samui, unlike what happens in the rest of Thailand, everyone remembers the macabre dismemberment of Dr. Edwin Arrieta last August, on the neighboring island of Phangan. There are many who know that the confessed murderer, Daniel Sancho, is in his prison and some even have news of the start of the trial.
The Provincial Court lives these days locked in a single toy, as if there were no more cases, no summons – Songkran or Thai New Year helps – and on its steps and surroundings only Spanish (and some Catalan) can be heard, having been taken to the assault by cameras, paparazzi and reporters from a country they know little about.
This media tide – different from the real tide, which can be seen in the background, among palm trees, since the court is right on top – sometimes overflows to the prison, less than a kilometer away. There are prisons that border paradise. In Koh Samui, close to the sea but even closer to mountains to be developed, you can breathe and it is considered a friendly and uncrowded prison.
The best thing that could happen to its most famous inmate in Spain, Daniel Sancho, is to extend his stay there for as many years as he can, avoiding his transfer to the overcrowded high-security prison in Bangkok.
The judge’s ruling – who must remain anonymous – is not expected before May 3. But his family has little reason for optimism, with witness statements marking Sancho’s passage through Koh Phangan like clockwork, with dire consequences for his close friend, Edwin Arrieta, a Colombian plastic surgeon with an international career. . A man enthralled by the son of actor Rodolfo Sancho, fifteen years younger, and predisposed to scratching his wallet on whims.
Daniel Sancho, who had confessed to the crime, later recanted, at the request of his lawyers, claiming self-defense. In the course of a fight, he went on to say the young man – a fan of Thai fighting, Muay Thai – Arrieta would have hit his head. However, the autopsy determined that this had not been the cause of his death.
Sancho not only broke Arrieta’s heart, but he was cruel to his corpse, tearing it into fourteen chunks, several of which have never been found.
In the culture of the place, these lurches in the declaration – these legal tricks – are very frowned upon and strip credibility of everything that is declared next.
In an airy and wooded environment, also chosen for a meditation center with Indian roots, this prison was built last decade. Opposite there is a very modest hotel, where the bill per night is so cheap that it could well be a hotel by the hour.
The only hope open to Sancho is that the three large islands that make up the judicial demarcation of Koh Phangan, a fertile ground for tourism, are often a reverse of what is considered normal in the rest of the country, even in its most vacation areas. The taxi in Koh Phangan costs four times more than in Bangkok, as if you had changed nations. In “the land of smiles”, the only place where they are practically conspicuous by their absence is among the Bangkok Airways stewardesses – again, the world upside down – on the flight from Bangkok to Samui. Not in vain, the beautiful airport was built by the airline, which enjoys it exclusively, so why pretend.
Many more smiles are spread four or five kilometers from the jail and the court, where, one hundred meters from the beach, legal marijuana vendors, restaurants, 7Elevens, bars and houses follow one another, door to door. of massages. There are also a kind of fairs that are incomprehensible and empty in the light of day, which come to life and meaning when the sun sets and are populated with girls. Like food markets that spit out music, in which they are the merchandise.
Furthermore, during these Songkran parties, young people and not so young people armed with water guns ambush massage parlors – one in every four or five businesses – to splash passers-by. Like every neighbor’s son does here these days. The operation is completed, in some cases, with talcum powder on the face.
These islands are and are not another country, because among a majority of conventional tourists there is a proportion of unconventional lunatics. In addition to digital nomads. Although coworking centers already seem to be testimonial.
There are also fugitives from justice in their countries, who have found sanctuary in Thailand. Who is going to argue with that, when the Thais themselves are the first to
In Samui – the third largest island in Thailand – there are many Russians, although fewer than in Phuket. Bundit (name changed), works in a mobile and computer repair shop and is reluctant to speak ill of expatriates, who make up a high proportion of his clients. However, he acknowledges that “some Russians and Israelis cause a lot of problems.” They are only a tiny minority among the many thousands of tourists from these nationalities, but with a clear criminal profile and even mafia structures. In fact, six years ago, an Israeli mafia boss was fatally stabbed by two other Israelis in the middle of the street in Koh Samui.
Inmates with this profile are not at all rare in Samui prison, although the most dangerous are sent to Bangkok. This week, one of the few interruptions to Daniel Sancho’s television show at the entrance to the court was the entry into a police van of detainees who looked like they were from Eastern Europe.
Olga is also Russian, but she claims to avoid depending on her compatriots. A “normal” Russian, she says, although normality here implies having one foot in digital nomadism. “I’m a doctor and I do online consultations,” she explains while she devours a falafel in a modern restaurant owned by a Syrian. She lives with her husband and her two children on the other coast of the island. She had not heard of the Koh Phangan crime, but she keeps asking for details. “Ah, we like Koh Samui. We’re just passing through Koh Phangan. Too many drugs and too much depravation. A friend of ours was invited to a tantric sex camp and they told him he could bring his wife and pet.” Last month, a Polish citizen, a self-proclaimed tantric guru, was arrested and charged with illegal activities.
Bundit, who is Samui’s son, remembers Daniel Sancho’s crime perfectly. “That’s twenty years,” he says, “but with money, it can last five. This country needs a change, because there is a lot of corruption.” In the police too? “Everywhere. They are all corrupt.” Also Big Joke? (the super agent who “solved” the case). “But of course,” he smiles, “the most. Well, at the same level as his rivals in the body.”
Thailand never stops producing plots for the “crimes in paradise” genre. Even more so for that television subgenre, specifically Anglo-Saxon, like “Prisoner Abroad.” These islands in particular also attract an exaggerated proportion of special cases.
Natalia, another Russian, says she has gone “one hundred and twenty-three days” without eating solid food. She is still in the liquid state, but aspires to the gaseous one. She is also not very picky about her miracle liquids, since she buys them at 7Eleven, the most ubiquitous convenience store in Thailand. She also claims to have online disciples, in her case of “spiritual healing.”
This correspondent surprises her by writing a petition that she says she will later deposit in a Buddhist temple. “I have a big, big wish.” Natalia clarifies that she is not about hunting a billionaire. “Noooo, that’s suck.” And she explains that if she is in Samui, it is not by chance. “Here wishes come true every day. Because this place is very close to God’s ear.” So maybe all is not lost for Daniel Sancho, as long as he comes clean.
(Below, scene of the Songkran-Thai New Year water fight in Lamai, the beach town closest to the Samui Provincial Court)