By Jennifer Amarachi
A Thai court sentenced a famous Spanish actor’s son to life in prison on Thursday for the heinous murder of a Colombian plastic surgeon on a tropical holiday island, in a harrowing case that has captivated Spain.
Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a 30-year-old cook, was found guilty of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga’s premeditated murder on Koh Phangan, a tourist island in 2023.
The defendant’s father, Rodolfo Sancho, is a well-known actor, so the case has sparked a lot of interest in Spain, and scores of Spanish media have flown in to cover the trial.
Bussakorn Kaewleeled, a lawyer for the victim’s family, expressed satisfaction with the verdict.
“The plaintiff is satisfied with the sentence because he will be put in prison for life and they receive some financial compensation,” Bussakorn told reporters outside the court on the island of Koh Samui.
“The verdict has been delivered, both sides have the right to appeal according to Thai law,” Bussakorn added.
When asked about Sancho’s reaction, she stated, “He is sad, but we cannot forget the loss of the deceased.”
Sancho claimed he killed Arrieta, 44, in self-defense and acknowledged to burying the body, but he denied destroying his Colombian passport.
The trial heard that Sancho dismembered Arrieta’s body and placed the pieces in plastic bags before distributing them over Koh Phangan.
Thailand still possesses the death sentence for various crimes, including premeditated murder, however executions are rare, with the most recent taking place in 2018. Prior to the verdict, Arrieta’s family expressed support for a life sentence.
“Let him be left in Thailand so he can take time, all the time that God gives him to live, to think about what he did,” Darling Arrieta, the victim’s sister, said in an HBO documentary about the case.
“He not only dismembered my brother, he dismembered a family.”
Self-defense claim:
Sancho and Arrieta met in person after getting to know each other online. According to Sancho’s father in the same HBO documentary, Arrieta threatened his son, and then “there was a fight, and in this fight, there was an accident”. The defense maintained that Sancho acted in self-defense after Arrieta attempted to force him to have sex.
“He tried to rape me, and we fought,” Sancho stated in a statement reported by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. Juan Gonzalo Ospina, a lawyer for the victim’s family, stated in a recent interview with El Mundo that Sancho was living a “false reality”.
According to Ospina, the trial in April proved that Sancho purchased knives, plastic bags, and cleaning supplies before to the crime and stored them in the room where the homicide occurred.
