BANGKOK, Thailand – The Samui Provincial Court in southern Thailand announced on Friday that the appeals have been dismissed and the first-instance sentence condemning Daniel Sancho, the Spaniard accused of the premeditated murder of Colombian Edwin Arrieta, to life imprisonment has been upheld, according to a statement from judicial authorities.

Spaniard Daniel Sancho gets life sentence for murder of Edwin Arrieta

The statement indicates that the Region 8 Court of Appeal confirms the sentence of the first-instance court, adding that the conviction of the defendant for premeditated murder, as well as for crimes related to the concealment and dismemberment of the body and the destruction of the victim’s passport, is maintained. The announcement was released by Thailand’s Judicial Office in Bangkok shortly after a closed-door session concluded at the Samui Provincial Court, in which the judge read the parties the appeal ruling previously prepared by the Phuket Court of Appeal, which handled the case. The hearing began at 10am local time and ended about two hours later, attended by the Thai lawyers and representatives of both parties, with Daniel Sancho connecting by videoconference from Surat Thani prison, where he is currently serving his sentence.

Arrieta’s family and Sancho’s defence filed their appeals in December 2024 and March 2025 respectively, with the Colombian side requesting that the punishment be raised to capital punishment due to the strength of the evidence and an increase in compensation, set at 4.42 million baht in the first-instance sentence. Sancho’s defence, for its part, asked in its appeal for a new hearing or a retrial to summon new witnesses, maintaining that Arrieta’s death was an accident during a fight.

The judicial statement notes that the definitive sentence continues to be life imprisonment, stressing that the death penalty, which Thailand reserves for cases of premeditated murder, had already been reduced in the first-instance sentence on the grounds that the defendant’s statement was useful to the proceedings. The outcome of the appeals also maintains the compensation of 4.42 million baht in favour of the victim’s parents. The document also highlights the purchase of knives, a saw, a machete or butcher’s knife, garbage bags, rubber gloves and cleaning products that Sancho had stored in a hotel room before the day of the events, concluding that it was therefore a premeditated murder.

The sentence is thus fully confirmed, the statement adds, ruling out any need for new evidence requested by the defendant. The hearing took place just over two years after the same court handed down its sentence against Sancho, condemning him to life imprisonment for the premeditated murder and dismemberment of Arrieta a year earlier, on 2 August 2023, on the neighbouring island of Koh Phangan, where they had arranged to meet that same day.

The first-instance sentence considered that Sancho planned the crime and struck with intent to kill Arrieta, whose remains appeared dismembered across the tourist island of Phangan. Although premeditated murder carries the death penalty in Thailand, which the country barely applies, the defendant’s initial confession served as a mitigating factor to reduce the sentence, despite Sancho later saying it was an accident.

With training as a chef and the son and grandson of famous Spanish actors Rodolfo Sancho and Sancho Gracia, which contributed to extensive media coverage of the case, Sancho, now 32, met Arrieta in 2022 through Instagram and they had seen each other on several occasions in Spain before meeting in Koh Phangan. A native of the Colombian town of Lorica in the northern department of Córdoba,

Judge sends Daniel Sancho to prison for the murder of surgeon Edwin Arrieta

Arrieta was a 44-year-old plastic surgeon who, according to those close to him, enjoyed travelling and gastronomy. After this first appeal is dismissed, both parties still have another appeal before the Supreme Court until a final sentence is issued, at which point the defence could begin proceedings to request Sancho’s transfer to Spain under a prisoner transfer agreement.

-Thailand News (TN)