Gift from heaven for the defense of Daniel Sancho, when there are six days left before the start of the trial on the Thai island of Samui. On Tuesday, Super Agent Surachate Hakparn, who led the police investigation into the case, had to hand himself in at a Bangkok police station after ignoring court summons three times for alleged corruption.
Surachate, better known by his alias, Big, concluded at the end of the summer that the Spanish chef had premeditatedly murdered his alleged lover, Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta, before dismembering him. “Capital punishment awaits him”, he said.
On the other hand, the office that has taken on the representation of Rodolfo Sancho’s son considers that it was an involuntary manslaughter, even in self-defense. A risky bet, the success of which will depend on being able to discredit the investigation of the case, which according to these lawyers was full of irregularities.
In fact, two weeks ago Surachate was already suspended from his duties as number two of the police by order of the Prime Minister. A day earlier, Big Joke had been summoned to testify accused of receiving bribes in exchange for turning a blind eye to a betting website in Thailand, where gambling is prohibited.
Five senior police officers would have received transfers for 7.7 million euros. In September Surachate’s house was already searched for this.
But Big Joke ignored a second summons, last week, and the last one, on Monday. For this reason, yesterday Tuesday the judge signed the arrest warrant. To avoid it, police number two – who already had a plane ticket to the south – would have presented himself at a police station in Bangkok. At two o’clock he came out, vouching for his trust – and with bail – and asking for respect for his presumption of innocence.
It is not for nothing that his other nickname is “cat of seven lives”. Someone with such good shoulders that he was able to keep open, in the police club, an office so that anyone could explain their problems to him without going through the police station.
