The Spanish Daniel Sancho has entered this Monday in the prison of Koh Samui, in the south of Thailand, after a judge of the provincial court of the island decree provisional detention for the young man for the alleged murder of the Colombian Edwin Arrietasources close to the case confirmed to EFE.

Sancho, 29, will remain in this prison for at least until the trial begins and from now on he will be subjected to ten-day isolation per COVID-19 protocol, a period during which he can only be visited by his legal representative. The lawyer, hired by Sancho’s family, son of Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho and grandson of the also actor Sancho Gracia, will meet the young man at the prison on Tuesday.

Sancho’s family is not expected to travel to Thailand immediately, due to the period of isolation to which the young man will be exposed. Once said protocol is finished, the trial will begin on an undetermined date (between weeks and months), while the Thai Police still have nine weeks to conclude the investigation.

Sancho’s lawyers had assured that they would request provisional release for the young man, denied by the judge. Before the transfer this Monday to Samui to go to court from the neighboring island of Koh Phangan, where the alleged crime took place, Sancho assured, when asked by EFE, that wants to “collaborate as much as possible“.

He pleaded guilty to the murder

Sancho pleaded guilty to murder and dismemberment of Arrieta on Saturday at the Koh Phangan police station. According to the police report, the first remains, the pelvis and a right leg, were found in the tourist resort Koh Phangan on Thursday and Friday, respectively.

The police have confirmed to EFE that the head has also been recovered and that it has been identified that the remains of the corpse belong to Arrieta, a 44-year-old plastic surgeon from the Colombian town of Loricain the department of Córdoba (north).

Sancho and Arrieta had met a long time ago through Instagram. While Sancho reached Koh Phangan on August 1, Arrieta met him there on August 2. Sancho himself reported a day later, on the night of Thursday, August 3, the disappearance of the Colombian at the Koh Phangan police station, and began being questioned as a suspect on Friday.

The Thai penal code provides maximum capital punishment for crimes of murder, although, if dictated, it is usually later commuted to life imprisonment. In this sense, in August 2020 the King of Thailand commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment for the Spanish Artur Segarra for the 2016 murder of his compatriot David Bernat in Bangkok, paving the way for a future extradition.