The homicide trial of a well-known Spanish actor’s son opened Tuesday on a preferred Thai vacationer island, the place he’s accused of killing and dismembering a Colombian plastic surgeon.
Chef Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, 29, pleaded not responsible at a listening to in November to the premeditated homicide of 44-year-old Edwin Arrieta Arteaga on the close by Koh Pha Ngan island.
The pair have been reported by Spanish media to have linked on Instagram in 2022, with Sancho travelling to Thailand on July 31 as a vacationer, the place they met.
The trial opened Tuesday on the honeymoon isle of Koh Samui, with Sancho’s father, well-known Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, arriving on the court docket shortly after 8:30 am (0130 GMT).
Lawyer Juan Gonzalo Ospina Serrano, representing Arrieta’s household, instructed reporters throughout a break that Sancho had not proven any regret contained in the courtroom.
“Daniel does not recognise he has committed any kind of murder, not voluntary or otherwise,” he mentioned, earlier than including: “It is a chilling image to see him cuffed by hands and feet.”
Ospina mentioned earlier that the household hoped “Thai law will be forceful, that the truth can be told”.
Sancho has been in pre-trial detention in Thailand since August, after police mentioned he had admitted to the homicide.
Under Thai legislation, premeditated homicide convictions carry the dying penalty.
However, Arrieta’s household beforehand mentioned they’d not search the dying penalty.
Sancho has admitted to hiding Arrieta’s physique — which carries as much as a yr in jail — however he denies the second cost of destroying the Colombian’s passport.
Sancho’s lawyer Apichart Srinual declined to reply reporters’ questions.
The Thai public prosecutor who filed the case towards Sancho additionally declined to talk to the media on the court docket.
The trial is predicted to final till mid-May, with scores of witnesses because of seem in court docket.
In August, police discovered physique elements which are believed to belong to Arrieta at a garbage dump in Koh Pha Ngan.
CCTV footage obtained by native media confirmed Sancho and the sufferer on a bike collectively shortly earlier than the stays have been found.
Police mentioned on the time Sancho’s motive for the killing was unclear.
Koh Pha Ngan is famed for its white sandy seashores and attracts hundreds of backpackers to its notoriously wild “full moon” events.
In 2017, one other Spaniard, Artur Segarra, was convicted of murdering a businessman in Bangkok and discarding dismembered physique elements into the Chao Phraya River.
Source: www.anews.com.tr