Daniel Sancho faces a new phase of his legal battle in Thailand after the country's justice system confirmed his life sentence. His legal team has already taken a first step before Thailand's highest court, but has not yet formalized the appeal. At the same time, the case is back in the spotlight due to audios in which the convicted man asked his mother, Silvia Bronchalo, for 100,000 euros, and the revelation that he would have also made that request to his father, Rodolfo Sancho.
The clarification on the procedural situation arrived this Monday from Marcos García Montes. The lawyer explained that the defense filed a clarification brief related to a witness matter, but that it is still awaiting the necessary summons to formally file the appeal before the Supreme Court of Thailand. "We have not yet filed the appeal," the lawyer said.
The clarification nuances the information disseminated during the day that suggested Sancho had already appealed directly to the Supreme Court. EFE reported that on October 1, the defense filed a request with the Samui Provincial Court addressed to the Supreme Court to request the annulment of the appeal resolution. This procedure is carried out before the provincial court even if the final recipient is the country's highest judicial instance.
A step prior to the appeal for cassation
The difference between both procedures is relevant. The defense maintains its intention to appeal to the Supreme Court, but must still complete the necessary procedural steps to formalize the cassation. The brief filed now focuses on a matter related to witnesses and does not equate, as García Montes explained, to the definitive appeal.
The move comes after the Phuket Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence handed down in the first instance. The resolution was communicated on September 25 and maintained the life sentence imposed on Sancho in 2024 for the premeditated murder of Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta. Arrieta's family's claims to increase the penalty and modify the compensation were also rejected.
But the defense intends to go beyond a simple review of the conviction. According to information provided by EFE, one of the arguments of their new request is related to doubts about the impartiality of the court that resolved the appeal. The legal team intends for that resolution to be annulled and for the appeal to be studied again in another region of Thailand. The Supreme Court now represents the last judicial avenue left to Sancho in Thailand. The objective of his defense is to try to have the appeal resolution reviewed, although the appeal has not yet been formalized.
The 100,000 euros that Daniel would have also asked his father for
The judicial situation coincides with another revelation that has once again put the focus on the Sancho family. Carmen Balfagón, Rodolfo Sancho's lawyer, assured on Fiesta that Daniel would have also gone to his father to ask him for 100,000 euros.
According to the lawyer's account, the origin of the proposal would be people of different nationalities who were in prison and who would have conveyed to Daniel the possibility of finding a way out of his situation. Rodolfo, according to Balfagón, distrusted the operation and refused to hand over the money, considering it a scam. The figure coincides with that which appears in recently released audio recordings of a conversation between Daniel and his mother, Silvia Bronchalo, recorded in October 2025. In that call, Sancho explained to his mother a supposed plan to obtain freedom on bail by purchasing land in Thailand.
In the conversation, a woman identified as Alice also appears, whom Daniel introduces as a person who could facilitate the operation. The convicted man maintains that the acquisition of the land would allow activating a way to achieve his release from prison and that certain people could intervene so that his case would be in the hands of those he considered favorable.
However, it is not confirmed that Daniel went first to his father and then to his mother. Balfagón herself has indicated that she does not know when each conversation took place. Therefore, the coincidence in the amount requested is indeed reported by different media, but a sequence between both requests cannot be established with certainty.
Silvia Bronchalo, against the dissemination of the conversation
The publication of the audios has also provoked a reaction from Silvia Bronchalo. Daniel's mother has publicly denounced the dissemination of a private conversation held with her son and has stated that she feels "assaulted" by the way this content has been used.
The defense, for its part, has denied any relation to the leak. Balfagón maintains that making these audios public does not benefit Daniel or his legal team and has announced possible legal actions for the dissemination of the conversations. The lawyer has also focused on an open unknown: how conversations that, as she explained, Daniel could not record from prison, could have been obtained.
The death penalty that finally became life imprisonment
Sancho's situation takes on a special dimension due to the penalty he could have initially faced. Premeditated murder is punishable by the death penalty in Thailand, but the court that issued the sentence in August 2024 decided to impose life imprisonment, considering Sancho's statement during the investigation useful for the procedure.
Edwin Arrieta's family subsequently requested that the death penalty be reinstated during the appeal phase, but the court rejected that claim and maintained life imprisonment. Thus, the resolution that the defense is now trying to combat maintains both the main conviction and the penalties related to the concealment and dismemberment of the body and the destruction of the Colombian surgeon's passport.
Daniel Sancho remains in prison awaiting the Supreme Court
While these procedures are resolved, Daniel Sancho remains incarcerated in Surat Thani prison, where he is serving the life sentence imposed by Thai justice.
His defense thus keeps the judicial path open in Thailand. The next step will be to receive the necessary summons to formalize the appeal for cassation before the Supreme Court. Until then, the document submitted to the Samui court must be understood as a preliminary action within that procedure and not as the definitive filing of the appeal.
The case thus enters a new stage: the family and the defense prepare what may be Sancho's last judicial appeal in Thailand, while the latest revelations about the 100,000 euros and the conversations held from prison add a new front to a process that continues to generate attention in Spain.