BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s courtroom started a trial Tuesday of the son of Spanish actors accused of killing and dismembering a Colombian surgeon on a preferred vacationer island.
Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, 29, was indicted by prosecutors in October over the dying of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, whose stays had been discovered stuffed in plastic baggage at a landfill on Koh Pha Ngan, an island well-known for its rave-style “full moon events.”
Lawyer Juan Gonzalo Ospina Serrano, who represents Arrieta’s household, advised reporters on the Koh Samui Provincial Court docket earlier than the trial that the household trusts Thai prosecutors to ship justice.
“They’re grateful and hope that Thai legislation is forceful and that the reality could be advised,” he mentioned.
The costs towards Sancho embody premeditated homicide, concealment of a physique and destruction of different individuals’s paperwork. Sancho pleaded not responsible for premeditated homicide and destruction of paperwork however pleaded responsible for hiding the sufferer’s physique.
The cost of premeditated homicide carries a doable dying penalty. The concealment or damaging of a lifeless physique is punishable by a yr in jail.
The trial is opening with statements from witnesses introduced in by the plaintiff, mentioned Apichart Srinual, a Thai lawyer who represents Sancho.
When requested whether or not he’s assured about his protection case, Aprichart mentioned “it depends upon the proof,” including that “there are plenty of witnesses. It depends upon what they’ll say.”
Sancho was pushed to the courtroom in a closed automotive and was not seen to reporters ready outdoors. Sancho’s father, Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, additionally got here to the courtroom however declined remark.
Sancho, a chef, was arrested in August after the stays of Arrieta, 44, had been found on the landfill.
Police mentioned Sancho got here in to report a lacking individual and was subsequently detained. He later reportedly confessed to killing and dismembering Arrieta and dumping the physique elements within the landfill and the ocean, although he denied that his motion was premeditated, in accordance with police.
