Crime & Justice

Case report on Spanish murder suspect due this month: Thai police

Bangkok, Sep 7 (EFE).- Thai police said Thursday it is concluding the investigation report into the murder of a Colombian surgeon on Koh Phangan to which a Spanish chef confessed and that it plans to deliver it to the prosecutor’s office in mid-September.

“We are concluding the report. We are missing several blood and DNA results that are being analyzed in laboratories in Bangkok and Hat Yai. We will deliver the final report to the prosecutor’s office in the middle of the month,” agent Suteep Chadakarn of Koh Phangan police station told EFE on Thursday.

For its part, the prosecutor’s office of the island of Samui, where Daniel Sancho is serving provisional imprisonment in connection to Edwin Arrieta’s death, told EFE that they do not have an estimated date of receipt of the report.

Sancho, 29, was arrested on Aug. 5 on the tourist island of Phangan, south of Thailand and neighboring Koh Samui, after confessing to Arrieta’s murder and dismemberment three days earlier.

Since Aug. 7, the day he was brought to justice, the young man has been in provisional prison in Samui, awaiting trial.

The Police have a period of 84 days from that date to conclude their investigation, in which about 30 people have participated, including agents, investigators, forensic doctors and divers, according to police sources.

Even if police deliver the report in the next few days, the investigation could continue later, since the prosecutor’s office would have the remaining period of 84 days to request more evidence if it considers it necessary.

Sancho’s lawyers will be able to officially access the case report once the prosecutor’s office has delivered it to the judge and the trial begins.

Phangan police delivered a preliminary report to the Samui judge on Aug. 7, to which the Thai lawyer representing Sancho also had access.

On Aug. 15, Thai Deputy Police Chief Surachate Hakparn, supervising the investigation, announced in a press appearance at Phangan police station the end of the investigation into Sancho and that the report would be sent to the prosecutor’s office imminently, although that deadline was not met.

According to police sources, the delay in closing the case, which has had about 20 witnesses, has been due to the lack of blood and DNA results analyzed by several laboratories to which the evidence was sent from Phangan.

Actor Rodolfo Sancho, father of Daniel Sancho, is in Thailand and visited his son in the Samui prison Thursday for the second day accompanied by Spanish lawyer Marcos Garcia Montes.

“The Family has hired a team to defend Daniel’s interests in Spain, Colombia and here. We are preparing evidence, very interesting evidence that we cannot reveal. We are working hard. We have a team of experts, criminological psychologists, specialists… and it is what we are working on,” said Garcia Montes, who arrived in Thailand with Sancho’s father.

Although regulations require that the lawyer representing Daniel Sancho be of Thai nationality, Sancho’s family has hired the services of Garcia Montes and other specialists to support the case. EFE

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