Thai court to sentence Spanish actor's son accused of murder

BANGKOK - A Thai court will sentence a famed Spanish actor's son charged with murdering and dismembering a Colombian plastic surgeon he met online.

The case against Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a 30-year-old chef and son of actor Rodolfo Sancho, has generated enormous interest in his home country, with scores of Spanish reporters flying in for the trial.

He is accused of murdering and dismembering Edwin Arrieta Arteaga on the tourist island of Koh Pha Ngan last year.

His trial on charges of premeditated murder, hiding a body and destroying documents was held in April on nearby Koh Samui, another tourist hotspot known for its turquoise waters and rave parties.

Sancho denies premeditated murder, but remains in detention after admitting he killed Arrieta, 44, in what he says was self-defence.

He has also admitted hiding the body, but denies destroying the Colombian's passport.

The two had agreed to meet up after getting to know each other online.

The trial heard that Sancho had placed parts of Arrieta's body in plastic bags and distributed them around Koh Pha Ngan.

Though his crimes are punishable by the death penalty, Arrieta's family has said they would prefer life in prison.

"Let him be left in Thailand so he can take time, all the time that God gives him to live, to think about what he did," Darling Arrieta, the victim's sister, said in an HBO documentary about the case.

"He not only dismembered my brother, he dismembered a family."

Sancho's father said in the same documentary that Arrieta had threatened his son, after which "there was a fight, and in this fight there was an accident".

The defence maintains that Sancho acted in legitimate self-defence after Arrieta tried to force him to have sex.