The young Spaniard Daniel Sancho, who has been facing a closed-door trial in Thailand since April 9 for the alleged premeditated murder of Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta, testifies today before the judge.
Before his statement in the Provincial Court of Samui (southern Thailand), decisive for the trial, Sancho, 29, has spoken about what happened on several occasions, both before the police and the magistrate and in statements to EFE .
These are some of the most relevant statements made by the Spaniard, son and grandson of the actors Rodolfo Sancho and Sancho Gracia (known by their surnames), since the alleged crime on August 2 in Phangan (near Samui).
– August 5/6, 2023: The police confession
Daniel Sancho confessed to the premeditated murder of Edwin Arrieta, whom he had known since the previous year and with whom he had met in Thailand, at the police station on the island of Phangan between August 5 and 6, after going there on the night of August 3 to report the disappearance of the Colombian.
In his written confession, included in the police report, to which EFE had access (to which it has not emerged whether it was recorded by the police), he admitted “all the charges voluntarily”, and stated the following about the day of the events:
“At around 4 – 4.30 pm (on August 2), while I am sitting on the bed (of his booked room at the Bougain Villa hotel in Phangan), Edwin stands in front of me, next to the bathroom. I spoke to Edwin to end the relationship, but he refused and asked me to sleep with him. I refused.
“I stood up and punched him hard in the face with my left hand, causing him to fall. His head hit the sink hard, so he bled, but he was still conscious. Then Edwin bit my left arm, and I struggled, grabbed Edwin, lifted him up and threw him hard against the sink, until he lost consciousness.
“I noticed blood coming out of the bathroom, I was in shock, and I stopped for an hour to make sure Edwin was dead. Then I dragged his body to the shower, cleaned the blood and used the knife to cut Edwin’s clothes, and, in addition to the knife, I took the saw and other tools that I had bought to dismember the body.”
– August 6: “I was his hostage”
On August 6, when he had already signed the confession before the Phangan police and had been formally detained, Sancho told EFE from the same police station:
“I’m guilty, but I was Edwin’s hostage. He held me hostage. It was a glass cage.”
“He was obsessed with me. He tricked me, he made me believe that what he wanted was to do business with me, to put money into the company of which I am a partner (…) But it was all a lie. The only thing he wanted was me, who was her boyfriend,” he said.
Sancho, who arrived on the island of Phangan on August 1, said that the Colombian surgeon decided to join his trip: “Every time I tried to get away from him, he threatened me,” he added.
– August 16: The Police interrogate him in prison.
Days after his entry into provisional prison in Samui on August 7, the police questioned Sancho again, this time in the penitentiary and in front of his then lawyer, Anan Chuayprabat.
During that interrogation, Sancho denied for the first time the premeditated murder of Arrieta and having bought the knives for that purpose, according to several sources close to the case, and in accordance with what Anan himself (known as Khun Anan) declared when he went to testify on behalf of the Prosecutor’s Office.
“The only question I have been asked is whether during the police interrogation that I attended, Daniel admitted that he had committed the murder. My answer was no, since he only referred to the deseeding and did not admit to having committed any murder or homicide,” Anan said as he left the court.
– November 13: Not guilty before the judge
In a preliminary phase hearing, before the same judge now in charge of the oral trial, whose identity is confidential, Sancho declared for the first time before the magistrate not guilty of premeditated murder, although he accepts the charge of dismembering his body.
Sancho also denied having made the Colombian’s passport disappear, the third of the three charges against him, and stated that Arrieta’s death was due to an accident.
– March 13 and 14: “They are going to absolve me”
In statements to EFE during two visits to the Samui prison on March 13 and 14, he stated that he is “convinced” that he will be acquitted of the charge of premeditated murder, which Thailand punishes with up to the death penalty, because he acted in “self-defense”.
“It was a fight that I did not start and that had a fatal outcome that I would never have wanted,” he noted.
– April 9: Trial begins in Samui
During the first hearing, Sancho heard again the three charges that the Prosecutor’s Office presented against him and again accepted the charge of hiding the body. Regarding the destruction of other people’s documentation, he admitted having made Arrieta’s passport disappear, but rejected the charge, alleging that it did not cause harm to the victim, as required by law.
He also pleads not guilty to the only extremely serious crime, that of premeditated murder. “It was an accidental death during a fight that I did not start. I asked him many times to leave,” he told the judge.
