Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, father of Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, speaks to reporters upon his arrival on the provincial courtroom in Koh Samui, southern Thailand, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. | Photograph credit score: AP
A Thai courtroom on Thursday (29 August 2024) sentenced the son of a well-known Spanish actor to life in jail for the ugly homicide of a Colombian plastic surgeon on a tropical resort island, in a lurid case that has shocked Spain.
Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a 30-year-old chef, was discovered responsible of the premeditated homicide of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga on the resort island of Koh Phangan final 12 months.
The case has generated huge curiosity in Spain as a result of the defendant’s father, Rodolfo Sancho, is a widely known actor, and dozens of Spanish journalists have travelled to attend the trial.
Bussakorn Kaewleeled, a lawyer for the sufferer’s household, mentioned they had been pleased with the result.
“The plaintiff is glad with the sentence as a result of he will probably be sentenced to life imprisonment and obtain monetary compensation,” Bussakorn advised reporters exterior the courtroom on the island of Koh Samui.
“The decision has been issued, each events have the appropriate to attraction beneath Thai legislation,” Bussakorn added.
Requested about Mr. Sancho’s response, she mentioned: “He’s unhappy, however we can’t neglect the lack of the deceased.”
Sancho claimed to have killed Arrieta, 44, in self-defense and admitted to hiding the physique, however denied destroying the Colombian’s passport.
The trial heard that Sancho reduce up Arrieta’s physique and put the components into plastic baggage earlier than distributing them round Koh Phangan.
Whereas Thailand nonetheless has the demise penalty for some crimes, together with premeditated homicide, it not often carries out executions (the final one in 2018).
Arrieta’s household mentioned earlier than the decision that they had been in favor of a life sentence.
“He ought to keep in Thailand so he can take a while, on a regular basis that God provides him to reside, to consider what he did,” mentioned Darling Arrieta, the sufferer’s sister, in an HBO documentary concerning the case.
“He did not simply tear aside my brother, he tore aside a household.”
Declare of self-defense
Sancho and Arrieta agreed to satisfy in individual after assembly on-line.
Sancho’s father mentioned in the identical HBO documentary that Arrieta had threatened his son, after which “there was a battle, and in that battle, there was an accident.”
The protection argued that Sancho acted in self-defense after Arrieta tried to drive him to have intercourse.
“He tried to rape me and we fought,” Sancho mentioned in statements quoted by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
A lawyer for the sufferer’s household, Juan Gonzalo Ospina, mentioned in a latest interview with El Mundo that Sancho was dwelling a “false actuality.”
Ospina mentioned the April trial confirmed that Sancho had purchased knives, plastic baggage and cleansing merchandise earlier than the crime and had saved them within the room the place the homicide occurred.