Rodolfo Sancho visits his son imprisoned in Thailand for the first time: “They’re not going to get tears from me”.
Renowned Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho visited his son, Daniel Sancho, for the first time Wednesday on the Thai island of Koh Samui, where he remains in pre-trial detention for the murder of Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta.
“There are two ways to take it when things come in life, as a misfortune or as a challenge. I think I have said enough… they are not going to get tears from me,” Sancho said as he left the jail where his son has been held since August 7.
Sancho has conveyed his “deepest condolences to the Arrieta family” and has shown his respect for the Thai authorities by stating that he believes “in justice and in how things work” in the country. However, he has avoided giving any details of the visit or the current state of his son.
The family’s Spanish lawyer, Marco García, accompanied Sancho on the visit and said that in the next few hours they will ask the Police and the Thai Prosecutor’s Office for a photocopy of the proceedings in order to develop their judicial strategy.
In this sense, García assured that they already have a preliminary strategy structured “based on the leaks from the police”, which he assumes “will be credible and authentic leaks” and that he will contrast with the documents provided to them from the proceedings. The objective of the defense strategy, García added, is to achieve “a prison sentence that is likely, in four years, to be in Spain”.
Daniel Sancho, 29, was arrested at the beginning of August on the island of Koh Phangan, in southern Thailand, as the alleged perpetrator of the murder of Edwin Arrieta.
Given the seriousness of the facts, the police filed charges of premeditated murder, concealment and transfer of parts against him, charges to which Sancho pleaded guilty before the same security force, according to Fernando Oca, one of the lawyers who assisted the young Spaniard at the beginning of the proceedings, told Globe Live Media.
The crime of premeditated murder can be punished with the death penalty in Thailand, an extreme that the Arrieta family does not want for the accused. “The family, being Catholic, does not want the death penalty to be applied (…) However, they do want a severe sentence and that refers precisely to a fairly long time in a Thai prison,” the Arrieta family’s lawyer, Miguel Gonzalez, told Globe Live Media.