(29 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Koh Samui, Thailand – 29 August 2024
1. Various of father of accused, actor Rodolfo Sancho, walking past media and getting into car at end of hearing
2. Various of mother of the accused, Silvia Bronchalo, walking to car after case is over
3. SOUNDBITE (Thai) Butsakorn Kaewleeled, Lawyer for victim’s family:
"The family has received justice from the court. The defendant has been sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to pay compensation.”
4. Wide of Thai flag at court
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Marcos Garcia-Montes, Legal Advisor to Rodolfo Sancho:
“And the most important thing is that we have the right to appeal. I think our argument is very solid. We continue to think about and respect the decision of the court, that we have some ways to appeal human rights within the court and that is what we have to do.”
6. Exterior of court
STORYLINE:
A court in Thailand found Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a member of a famous Spanish acting family, guilty of premeditated murder on Thursday and sentenced him to life in prison, in a lurid case that involved the victim being dismembered.
The Koh Samui Provincial Court issued an initial sentence of death for Sancho but commuted it to life imprisonment due to his cooperation during the trial, said Police Col. Paisan Sangthep, deputy commander of the Surat Thani Provincial Police, who attended the hearing.
Sancho, a 30-year-old chef with a YouTube channel, had been charged with the murder of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, a 44-year-old plastic surgeon from Colombia, when both were vacationing on the Thai holiday island of Koh Pha-ngan in August last year.
The convicted man is the son of Rodolfo Sancho Aguirre, a prominent Spanish actor, and Silvia Bronchalo, who has also been in acting.
Both parents are 49 years old and attended Thursday’s court session.
The court also ordered Sancho to pay more than 4.2 million baht ($125,000) in compensation to the victim’s family.
A lawyer for the victim’s family, Butsakorn Kaewleeled, told reporters they had received justice.
The Spanish news agency EFE quoted Sancho’s father Rodolfo telling media after the verdict that he intended “to always keep fighting, to keep fighting."
A Spanish legal team advising Sancho said an appeal against the verdict was likely.
At his trial on the island of Samui, Daniel Sancho had claimed he got into a fight with Arrieta for allegedly trying to sexually assault him.
He said that Arrieta fell as they scuffled and hit his head on a bathtub, losing consciousness and then dying.
He had pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder.
Sancho acknowledged dismembering the victim’s body and disposing of the parts on land and at sea.
For the charge of concealing or damaging a body, he received a four-month prison sentence, reduced to two months for acknowledging the act, police said.
He had also pleaded not guilty to the charge of destroying another person’s documents — the victim’s passport — for which he received a two-year prison term.
The elements of the case — violent death on a holiday island, the celebrity connections and the lurid details — attracted huge coverage in Spanish media.
HBO produced a Spanish-language documentary on the events.
The case came to light when trash collectors found what the Bangkok Post newspaper described as a sawed-off pelvis and intestines weighing about 5 kilograms (11 pounds) in a fertilizer sack at a garbage dump.
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