Image source, EPA
Caption: Daniel Sancho was convicted of killing Edwin Arrieta.Article information
- Author, Editor
- Title by the author, BBC News World
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August 29, 2024
Spanish chef Daniel Sancho was found guilty on Thursday of the murder and dismemberment of Colombian plastic surgeon Edwin Arrieta in Thailand and sentenced to life in prison.
The prosecution accused him of three charges: premeditated murder, concealment of the corpse and destruction of other people’s documents (the Colombian doctor’s passport).
Sancho had pleaded guilty to hiding the victim’s body but denied having killed him with premeditated intent.
This case has generated enormous interest both inside and outside Spain. Here are four keys to understanding what happened.
1. Who is Daniel Sancho?
Daniel Sancho is a 30-year-old Spanish chef, son of the renowned Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho (“Amar en tiempos revueltos”, “El ministerio del tiempo”) and the actress Silvia Bronchalo.
He is also the grandson of the renowned Spanish actor Sancho Gracia (“Curro Jiménez”) and the Uruguayan Noela Aguirre.
He had a YouTube channel called “Puro disfruta” (Pure enjoyment) where he uploaded videos of himself cooking until 2022.
Caption: Rodolfo Sancho accompanied his son to the Thai court on Thursday.
She had met Edwin Arrieta through the internet, and they had agreed to spend a few days at the beginning of August 2023 on the paradisiacal island of Ko Pha Ngan, in the Gulf of Thailand (south of the country).
The island hosts the Full Moon Party every month, an event that is mainly attended by foreign tourists. On that occasion, the party was held on August 3.
That day, a garbage collector found a severed pelvis and human intestines hidden in a bag around 12:30 p.m. at a landfill on the island.
And it was Daniel Sancho himself who reported the mysterious disappearance of his friend to the Thai authorities.
2. How did the crime happen?
The macabre story began on July 31, 2023, when Daniel Sancho arrived on the Thai island.
Arrieta, 44, arrived on August 2.
That same day, while in a villa they had rented in the north of the island, Sancho allegedly killed Arrieta, according to authorities.
According to the murderer’s version in statements to the EFE agency days after the crime, Arrieta “held him hostage.”
“It was a glass cage. It made me destroy my relationship with my girlfriend, it forced me to do things I would never have done,” he said at the time.
“He was obsessed with me. He deceived me, he made me believe that what he wanted was to do business with me, to put money into the company where I am a partner. That we would do things together, that we would go to Mexico, Chile, Colombia, to open a restaurant. But it was all a lie. All he wanted was me, for me to be his boyfriend,” she said at the time.
Image source, EPA
Caption: Daniel Sancho was taken to the Ko Samui provincial court on Thursday to hear the court’s ruling.
At the trial, Sancho said the two had fought after an alleged attempted rape.
Sancho said that the Colombian doctor fell into the bathroom during the fight and hit his head on the toilet, after which he died.
There he decided to get rid of the body; he dismembered it, placed it in different bags and scattered it around the island and in the sea.
According to the court ruling, Sancho committed the murder in a premeditated manner.
During the trial, the prosecution provided evidence that Sancho had purchased knives, a saw and plastic bags before Arrieta arrived on the island, and that he kept them in the room where the murder occurred, confirming the premeditated nature of the crime.
3. Who was Edwin Arrieta?
Edwin Arrieta Arteaga was born and raised in Lorica, a municipality in the department of Córdoba, in the Colombian Caribbean.
He lived in the El Recreo neighborhood in Montería, the capital of the department.
According to the Colombian press, he was raised by a working-class family. His father Leobaldo Arrieta was a radio and television repairman, while his mother Marcela Arteaga was a teacher.
In his hometown, there was shock over his murder.
As a surgeon, he was a member of the Colombian Society of Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery (SCCP).
Darling Arrieta, the victim’s sister, told local television station Caracol that “his dream was to see the whole world, which is why Edwin spent his time traveling.”
Image source, Instagram
Caption: Arrieta had a successful career as a plastic surgeon.
“My mom was always worried and told him: ‘Edwin, stop flying so much.'”
“He was an excellent son, an excellent brother, uncle, friend. A person who liked to do charitable works,” he said.
Arrieta studied medicine in Barranquilla, before continuing his studies in Buenos Aires, where he became a plastic surgeon.
After completing his studies, he returned to his native Colombia and settled in Montería, a city not far from his parents’ home.
According to his website, he treated “generally healthy patients who are uncomfortable with their bodies.”
Thanks to his career, operating primarily on women in Colombia and Chile, Arrieta has amassed tens of thousands of followers on social media.
4. How will the case proceed?
The court had initially sentenced him to death, but it was commuted to life imprisonment after considering Sancho’s cooperation during the investigation.
The court also found him guilty of hiding the body and stealing the victim’s passport, but as he was given a life sentence, that sentence stands and “cannot be combined with additional penalties,” the court said in a statement.
The criminal court on Samui Island, where the trial took place, also ordered him to pay about US$119,000 in compensation to Arrieta’s family.
After the court decision was announced, lawyers for both families spoke out.
“The plaintiff is satisfied with the sentence because he (Sancho) will be jailed for life and they (the plaintiffs) will receive financial compensation,” said Bussakorn Kaewleeled, legal representative in Thailand for the victim’s family.
In Spain, Juan Gonzalo Ospina, another lawyer for the Arrieta family, said the surgeon’s relatives never wanted the death penalty and that they believe “justice has been done.”
“This life sentence also corresponds to the family’s desire that Daniel spend as much time as possible in prison, especially when, to date and at this moment, there has still not been a sincere, humane apology for the harm caused to parents who did not say goodbye to a son and to a sister who could not say goodbye to her brother,” he added.
Both parties have the right to appeal the judgment, first before the Court of Appeals and finally before the Supreme Court.
Image source, EPA
Caption: Sancho in August 2023 after being arrested in Thailand.
Sancho’s defense said it would appeal.
“We are going to appeal the sentence,” said Sancho’s lawyer, Carmen Balfagón, who said that they did not expect a life sentence.
“It would be presumptuous to assess a ruling that we do not know. Now we have to translate it, see the motivation and, later, we will say the reasons for appealing, but that it will be appealed, for sure, without a doubt,” added another lawyer, Marcos García-Montes.
In Thailand, manslaughter carries a penalty of between three and 15 years in prison.
Spanish media reported Thursday that Sancho’s lawyers could seek to have the chef transferred to a Spanish prison after serving part of his sentence in Thailand.
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