Daniel Sancho’s murder hearing in Thailand postponed due to lack of a Spanish translator

The Thai judiciary has postponed the hearing in which Daniel Sancho — the 29-year-old Spaniard who confessed to having killed and dismembered Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta on the island of Koh Pha-ngan — was to hear the charges being brought against him by the prosecution, due to the absence in the courtroom of an interpreter able to translate from Thai to Spanish. The provincial court on the island of Koh Samui, where Sancho has been held since August 7, has assigned him a court-appointed lawyer after the defendant’s father, Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, who is in Thailand, dispensed with the services of lawyer Anan Chuayprabat due to “discrepancies in the defense.” The hearing has now been postponed until November 13. The prosecution, which delivered its final report on the crime on Wednesday, accuses the Spaniard of premeditated murder, concealment of the body and destruction of other people’s documents. The first of these crimes is punishable by death in Thailand.

The hearing in the Samui court began early in the morning with the attendance of Sancho, who had to answer whether he accepted or rejected the charges being brought against him by the prosecution. No sooner had the hearing begun, it was postponed for a few hours by the judges, and then suspended until next month due to the defendant’s request for a Thai-Spanish translator. It was Sancho’s second appearance in person before the court since he was remanded in custody. On other occasions, he has followed proceedings via videoconference.

Thursday’s hearing also served for the court to assign a public defender to Sancho. The chosen lawyer, Krit Sudthanom, said at the gates of the courthouse that he had not yet met with Sancho and will not do so until November 13. The Spaniard has not had legal representation in Thailand, where the law dictates he can only be defended by local counsel, since September 7.

Sancho, whose case has generated worldwide media interest, has been in pre-trial detention in Samui jail since August 7, after he was arrested two days earlier on the neighboring island of Pha-ngan after confessing to the murder and dismemberment of Arrieta, whose remains were scattered in garbage containers on the island and in the sea.

Thailand’s Penal Code provides for the death penalty for crimes such as premeditated murder, but if capital punishment is imposed, it is usually later commuted to life imprisonment. On the other hand, the confession and cooperation of the accused can help to significantly reduce the sentence, as the judge himself reminded Sancho on August 7, when he was brought before the court. The police delivered its report to the Prosecutor’s Office on October 3, after two months of investigation into the alleged crime, which took place on August 2 on Pha-ngan.

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