This Friday, August 2nd, marks one year since the murder of Edwin Arrieta. A year since Daniel Sancho decided to dismember who was his friend, partner, or business associate – depending on each person’s perspective – to scatter the 17 pieces of his body across the island of Thailand where they went on vacation. Awaiting the judicial resolution that will establish whether the accused committed the crime with premeditation or impulsively, there have been movements from the victim’s family. It marks the first anniversary without the Colombian surgeon, and justice has yet to be served, which is why the Arrieta family’s lawyer has made a popular appeal, raising awareness, and preventing Edwin from falling into oblivion. A viral movement that is provoking a wave of solidarity with the family, empathizing with the pain they have been enduring for these long months that now total twelve.
The Koh Samui Court will rule on Daniel Sancho’s judicial fate on August 29th. He faces the possibility of a death penalty, although everyone expects he will be sentenced to life in prison, after which he will request royal pardon and return to Spain in no less than eight years. Edwin Arrieta’s loved ones are not seeking revenge, only justice, trusting more in God than in the judge, as they have stated in their public appearances, including his sister Darlin in Spain. She has made it very clear the suffering that has overwhelmed their parents and turned their lives into a true hell. This has also been addressed by Juango Ospina, his lawyer.
“Today marks one year since this atrocious and cowardly crime. My love goes out to a humble and hardworking family, who overnight lost a loved one and have had to endure all the media pressure,” expressed the Arrieta family’s lawyer in solidarity with his clients’ pain. He knows firsthand how difficult these harsh months have been for them, during which they not only faced the grief of losing Edwin but also had to confront rumors and disinformation that focused on the victim’s intimacy rather than the details of the murder that took place in Thailand at the hands of Daniel Sancho, as he himself admitted. He has since refined his version and made excuses for his confession to fit the judicial strategy set by his own lawyers.
“May the hope of finding justice and peace soon reach their lives and hearts. To those who believe in good and in life after this earthly passage, let us accompany the family with a prayer,” concluded the lawyer for Edwin Arrieta’s family, who seeks to offer some comfort to his clients on such a marked date on the calendar. August 2nd will always be marked in red on their calendars, irrevocably associated with the pain of the Colombian surgeon’s murder at the hands of his friend. That friend, whom they had not heard of, along with so many other matters they would learn about later when everything escalated and their lives crumbled. Issues that Daniel Sancho’s defense is using to emphasize that his death was not a murder, leaving the victim as the presumed executioner.
