A Thai court has sentenced the son of a famous Spanish actor to life in prison for the murder of a Colombian plastic surgeon he met online in a scandalous case that shocked Spain, the victim’s lawyer said.
Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, 30, was found guilty of the premeditated murder of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga last year on the resort island of Koh Phangan. The case has attracted huge interest in Spain because the defendant’s father, Rodolfo Sancho, is a well-known actor, and dozens of Spanish journalists flew to Thailand to attend the trial.
Sancho confessed to killing Arrieta, 44, in self-defense and hiding his body, but denied destroying the Colombian’s passport. The trial heard that Sancho cut up Arrieta’s body and hid the parts in plastic bags before distributing them around Koh Phangan. Although Thailand still has the death penalty for some crimes, including premeditated murder, executions are rare, most recently in 2018.
Arrieta’s family said before the verdict that they favored a life sentence. “Let’s leave him in Thailand so he can take his time, all the time God gives him to live, to think about what he’s done,” Darling Arrieta, the victim’s sister, said in an HBO documentary about the case. “He didn’t just tear my brother apart, he teared a family apart.”