Madrid, Jan 12 (EFE).- The lawyers and family of the Spanish national Daniel Sancho said on Friday that he never confessed to intentionally killing Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta, as claimed by the police in Thailand, where the alleged crime occurred.
Moreover, they denounced that the actions of the Thai police had been “full of irregularities» in which he was deceived into confessing to the murder.
Daniel Sancho, son of actor Rodolfo Sancho, is currently in pretrial detention for the death of the Colombian surgeon on Aug. 2, 2023 on the touristic island of Phangan in southern Thailand.
Sancho is accused of premeditated murder, concealment of the body and destruction of other documents – referring to Arrieta’s passport – of which Sancho has admitted to the second accusation before a judge.
Earlier, he had reportedly confessed to the police about having killed Arrieta and helped reconstruct the sequence of events.
If found guilty, he faces a possible death penalty in the trial that is scheduled to take place from Apr. 9.
Sancho’s lawyer in Spain, Marcos Garcia Montes said Friday at a press conference that the Thai police’s investigation was «full of irregularities,» but expressed faith in Thailand’s justice system as a «guarantor of human rights.»
Garcia Montes said the maximum jail sentence for the incidents under investigation would be between 8-10 years and Sancho could be back in Spain in three or four years, taking into account that he he got into a fight with Arrieta to defend himself from a sexual assault.
Moreover, the lawyer claimed that Sancho never confessed to premeditated murder, but did get rid of the body.
«The police deceived Daniel Sancho until he confessed,» said Carmen Balfagon, another lawyer from Sanchos’ legal team in Spain.
She underlined that the Thai officers «deceived Daniel with a deportation order that did not exist,» promising that he would be in Spain in two days, and then mistranslated his statement.
«Daniel declared that there was a fight and an attempt of sexual assault, he defended himself,” resulting in Arrieta’s death, explained this lawyer.
Balfagon added that «this is not what the police transcribed,» but instead translated his words to mean that he did it intentionally and that in fact he bought tools to perpetrate the crime, which Sancho blatantly denied.
In the same vein, Garcia Montes said that «there have been police actions outside the purview of the judge and prosecutor.»
«If he is deceived from the beginning, the aftermath has no value,» said the lawyer, and said that Daniel signed documents written in Thai.
He also stated that they were very happy with the Thai lawyer currently defending Sáncho, who has been in pre-trial detention since Aug. 7 in Thailand. EFE
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