The Spaniard Daniel Sancho, in provisional prison on the island of Samui (southern Thailand) for the murder of the Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta, appeared this Friday for the first time without a lawyer before a judge in a telematic hearing, as confirmed by judicial sources.
Sancho attended by videoconference the hearing of the Samui district court, a routine hearing to extend the provisional detention regime in which he has been since August 7, without being represented by a lawyer in the Southeast Asian country for the moment. which is not mandatory until the trial begins.
The 29-year-old Spaniard has not had a lawyer in Thailand – where he can only be represented by a native of the Asian country – since September 7, after “discrepancies in the defense of the services of Thai Kunh Anan,” according to a statement. disclosed by the spokespersons of the actor Rodolfo Sancho, father of the accused.
The spokespersons are in turn members of the legal-criminological team supporting and advising Sancho’s defense from Spain, the Marcos García-Montes law firm and the Bafalgón-Chipirrás Legal Criminological Office, which work to “define, support and collect evidence to the line of defense,” reads the same statement.
Thai lawyer Anan Chuayprabat (Kunh Anan) had represented Sancho for a month, from the time he was brought into court on August 7 until September 7.
The Thai Police are still working on the investigation of the case, for which they have a period of 84 days from Sancho’s entry into provisional prison, which concludes on October 28.
Once the investigation is completed, the Police must submit a report to the Samui Prosecutor’s Office, from which point a trial date can be set. However, the Prosecutor’s Office could still have the remaining period if the Police had not expedited the 84-day period to request more information.
If a Thai lawyer had not been hired when the judicial process began, the judge would appoint one ex officio, according to judicial sources.
In relation to the defense strategy, Rodolfo Sancho explained on September 9, after spending almost a week in Thailand, where he visited his son, that the idea is that “team work can be done between Spain and Thailand to help to my son as much as possible.
Daniel Sancho was arrested on August 5, when he confessed to the murder and dismemberment of Edwin Arrieta at the police station on the tourist island of Phangan, neighboring Samui.
Sancho and Arrieta met last year through Instagram and had met in Phangan on August 2, the day on which the surgeon’s murder supposedly took place, whose remains have been found in various locations on the island, including the sea.
On the other hand, Sancho will be tried in Spain starting November 7 for an alleged assault that occurred in 2019, in a trial in which he could appear by videoconference if the Thai authorities allow it, after the Spanish Prosecutor’s Office rejected requesting his extradition.
