The young Spanish Daniel Sancho, suspected of murdering the Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta, assured this Monday that he wants to “collaborate in everything he can”, hours before being placed under judicial order.

Sancho, 29, made these statements from the Koh Phangan police station, the island where the alleged murder took place, when asked about the transfer, scheduled for this Monday, to neighboring Koh Samui, where a judge will decide whether to present or no formal charges against you.

If so, it is very likely that Sancho would go on to be imprisoned until the trial, since the possibility of him being released on bail is low given the seriousness of the case.

The young man insisted in the conversation that the Thai police on Koh Phangan “are treating him very well” and revealed that the officers who are guarding him took him to dinner at a restaurant on the island the day before.

He also assured that he was then able to speak on the phone with his family and friends.

The family of Sancho, son of the Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, has hired a private office for the defense of the young man, according to confirmed sources close to the case, although for the moment the Thai public defender continues to represent him.

The lawyer hired by the Spanish could begin to represent him from this Monday, once Sancho is transferred to Samui.

Arrieta's body was dismembered and the first remains, the pelvis and a right leg, were found in the tourist resort Koh Phangan on Thursday and Friday, respectively, according to the police report, which details that the limb was found in a landfill in the island.

The police have confirmed that the head has also been recovered and that the remains of the body have been identified as belonging to Arrieta, 44, a plastic surgeon from the Colombian town of Lorica, in the department of Córdoba (north).

They met on Instagram

The two had met for a long time through Instagram and met in Koh Phangan on August 2.

According to the police report, Sancho arrived in Koh Phangan on July 31 and on August 1 bought knives and black and green garbage bags from a shop on the island.

He himself points out that Arrieta did not arrive on the island until Wednesday, August 2, and that Sancho went to pick him up (at the arrival point of the ferry from Samui) that day at 3:05 p.m.

Sancho himself reported on Thursday night at the Koh Phangan police station the disappearance of his friend at dawn on August 3.

Politicians know that it is their colleagues from the opposition who are losing sleep, as it seems to have happened a few years ago to Pedro Sánchez with Pablo Iglesias, but sometimes they get distracted and it turns out that their professional risk, who really threatens them are their relatives, and sometimes the closest. This is what is happening these days to two American presidents, elected by the majority of the citizens, but the continuity in their positions is in danger due to the suspicious conduct of no less than… their children!

One of them is Joe Biden himself, who already reached the White House avoiding accusations of corruption in his professional businesses of his firstborn – the result of his marriage to his first wife Neilia Hunter Biden.. Those suspicions, which in the end were avoided during the electoral campaign against Trump, are now prospering again with greater force in the face of the controversial claims of his own Democratic followers facing re-election next year.

More serious due to the urgency and seriousness of the facts is the ethical obligation to present his resignation faced by the recently elected president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, whose eldest son and closest collaborator, Nicolás, deputy from the Atlantic and now detained in Bogotá, has recognized before the judges that his father managed to win the position thanks to the financial support of drug trafficking that he received during the electoral campaign. It is obvious to add that the charge is very serious and the scandal transcends the daily political struggle.

Colombia has long suffered from the stigma of being one of the capitals of drug trafficking and the confirmation that the President of the Republic himself is one of its beneficiaries further tarnishes the image and international respect that the country was recovering thanks to the fight against criminal production and export that previous governments were achieving. Sometimes, sad to admit, the most dangerous enemy is not sitting on the benches of the Parliament, he lives in his own house.

The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelensky, has asked for “patience” at the rate at which his country's army's counteroffensive is advancing, while stressing the importance of his troops having taken the initiative on the battlefield. “We have to be patient if we want to win, and we do,” said the Ukrainian head of state.

The Thai Police will transfer this Monday the Spanish Daniel Sancho, suspected of murdering the Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta, to the island of Koh Samui (southern Thailand), where he will go to court, according to police sources.

Once in Samui, the neighboring island of Koh Phangan, where the alleged murder took place, a judge must decide whether to file official charges against Sancho, who, if so, will most likely be imprisoned until trial.

The possibility of him being released on bail until then is low given the seriousness of the case.

For the moment, Sancho remains at the Koh Phangan police station.

The 29-year-old has been there since he began being questioned on Friday as a suspect in the murder and dismemberment of Colombian plastic surgeon Edwin Arrieta, to which he pleaded guilty to Thai police on Saturday.

The Spaniard has told EFE that the Thai police have treated him well during the process.

The family of Sancho, son of the Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, has hired a private office for the defense of the young man, according to confirmed sources close to the case, although for the moment the Thai public defender continues to represent him.

Arrieta's body was dismembered and the first remains, the pelvis and a right leg, were found in the tourist resort Koh Phangan on Thursday and Friday, respectively, according to the police report, which details that the limb was found in a landfill in the island.

Police have confirmed that the head has also been recovered and that the remains of the body have been identified as belonging to Arrieta.

“I was Edwin's hostage”

Arrieta, 44, was a plastic surgeon from the Colombian town of Lorica, in the department of Córdoba (north).

In a conversation with EFE, Sancho pleaded guilty to the crime and assured: “I am guilty, but I was Edwin's hostage. held me hostage. It was a glass cage, but it was a cage.”

According to the police report, Sancho arrived in Koh Phangan on July 31 and on August 1 bought knives and black and green garbage bags from a shop on the island.

He himself points out that Arrieta did not arrive on the island until Wednesday, August 2, and that Sancho went to pick him up (at the arrival point of the ferry from Samui) at 3:05 p.m.. Both then went together to a bar near the Bougain hotel, where they stayed until 6:00 p.m., to go to another place afterwards.

Sancho himself reported on Thursday night at the Koh Phangan police station the disappearance of his friend at dawn on August 3.

South Korea has experienced a wave of attacks in recent weeks. On Thursday afternoon, a man left at least 14 injured in an attack at the Seohyeon shopping center. After 24 hours, another individual stabbed a teacher at a Daejeon school.

These attacks are not the first to take place this summer in the South Korean country, since on July 21 there was another case of aggression with a knife.

How did the attacks take place?

The first incident took place on July 21 near the Seoul subway station.. According to testimonies collected in local media, a man injured several people with a knife, claiming that he did not want to live because things were not going as he wished.

Thirteen days later, on August 3, a second attack took place at a shopping mall near the Seohyeon subway station in Seongnam City.. An individual ran over five people and later indiscriminately stabbed users who were shopping. The detainee suffers from a social phobia disorder and is diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder

A few hours later, during the early hours of August 4, another man entered a Daejeon school posing as a graduate and stabbed one of the teachers.. The three subjects were identified and detained by South Korean police moments after the incidents.

How many victims are there in all?

The three attacks have left a total of 2 dead and 18 injured. The incident that occurred in Seoul claimed the first fatality and left three people injured. The second death occurred in the Seohyeon shopping center, where 14 people were also injured.. The attack at the Daejeon school has resulted in only one victim, the stabbed teacher from whose state no further information has been disclosed.

They are related?

Police did not offer any immediate information on a potential motive.. The head of the National Police agency described the attacks as “virtually an act of terrorism”, The Guardian reports.. However, it is believed that in the case of the Daejeon teacher, the assailant knew the victim. A witness testified that he heard the teacher say: “It's my fault.”

Are new attacks expected?

A series of anonymous individuals threatened this past Friday to carry out stabbings an hour after the attack in Seohyeon took place.. Several threatening texts circulated on social networks in which they threatened “mass stabbings” at Ori station, also south of Seoul, with the aim of “killing as many people as possible”.

In a second text, another individual shared a photo of a gun and threatened to kill 20 people.. The authorities indicated that two other texts were received a few hours later with similar threats.

What does the Police recommend?

The National Police Agency held a meeting on Thursday with regional police chiefs to discuss ways to prevent and act on cases of stabbings and other attacks against random targets.. Police Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun advised South Koreans to be on their guard against such attacks and urged officials to be on the lookout for possible copycat crimes.

It's just a book, but it's not just any book. The Koran is for Muslims one of the holiest symbols of Islam.. This is why Muslims around the world do not understand the burning of copies of the Koran by far-right individuals in Denmark and Sweden. And they protest about it.

On January 21, a Swedish-Danish ultra-rightist burned a copy of the Koran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.. It was only the beginning. In June, there were two more burnings. Swedish police allowed “protests” citing free speech after a court struck down a ban on similar Quran burning.

Then in July it was in Denmark. A group calling itself Danske Patrioter (Danish Patriots) burned a copy in front of the Iraqi embassy, sparking harsh diplomatic tensions and disorder in Baghdad. The next day they did it again, this time in front of the Egyptian embassy.. And there have been more in both Scandinavian countries.

Protests in the Islamic world

In response to the burning of their holy book, strong protests have been taking place in the Islamic world since mid-July.. The most virulent was the one referred to in Baghdad, when hundreds of protesters stormed and set fire to the Swedish embassy in protest at the summons of Salwan Momika, an Iraqi refugee hosted by Sweden since 2019, who announced a burning of the Koran in Stockholm.

In the end, he did not burn the sacred book, but instead kicked and desecrated it right in front of the embassy of his country of origin amid considerable media coverage and protests by groups of protesters, mainly Muslims.

The governments of Muslim countries have summoned Danish and Swedish representatives to convey their protests and demand that measures be taken to stop the burning of their holy book.. They have also defended a UN Human Rights Council resolution condemning the burning of Korans as an act of religious hatred.. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has condemned the protests and has called for United Nations intervention.

Türkiye, Sweden and NATO

In addition to provoking large demonstrations in Yemen or Iraq, several governments of Muslim-majority countries have warned that consenting to the burning of copies of the Koran may have consequences for diplomatic relations.

Along these lines, the Iraqi government ordered the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador in Baghdad and threatened to terminate the contracts of companies operating in its territory.. More important is the case of Turkey, which after the burning of a Koran in January began to raise its tone against Sweden's entry into NATO.

Erdogan warned that “insulting Muslims is not freedom of thought” and charged against “arrogance”

At the end of June, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that “insulting Muslims is not freedom of thought” and charged against Western “arrogance”.. Turkey is one of the two member states of the Atlantic Alliance that have not yet ratified Sweden's entry.

And the expression freedom?

Sweden and Denmark have been studying for days the possibility of restricting the burning of the Koran or prohibiting those held before foreign embassies, a proposal that has received criticism from the political opposition in both countries.. The Danish government seems more inclined to do so.

Ultranationalists from Danish Patriots have desecrated the Koran in Copenhagen, while chanting anti-Islamic slogans and unfurling anti-Islamic banners. The Danish executive has condemned these acts and has said that it will study the possibility of intervening in situations in which other countries, cultures and religions are denigrated to safeguard national security.

Trying to be conciliatory, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has suggested that desecration of the Koran and other holy books outside foreign embassies should be made illegal.. This week in an interview with the Danish weekly Weekendavisen, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that banning such acts would not restrict freedom of expression. “I do not consider a limitation on freedom of expression that other people's books cannot be burned,” he declared.

I do not consider it a limitation on freedom of expression that other people's books cannot be burned”

However, the parties of the Danish opposition, made up of seven parties, have expressed their objections to the executive's proposal. They argue that such actions could invite foreign interference in Danish politics and undermine civil liberties.

Sweden, at the moment, nothing is going to change. Its Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, has said the global repercussions of the desecration of the Qur'an are not worth the country abandoning its free speech rules.

Hristersson has accused foreigners of taking advantage of the country's free speech laws and using them as “stages to spread hate messages”.. According to the head of the Executive, the burning of the Koran is “dragging Sweden into international conflicts.”

In the past both countries could do more because they had blasphemy laws. Another thing is that both the Swedes and the Danes used them sparingly. Sweden repealed its law in the 1970s, and Denmark did the same as recently as 2017.

Also security

The crisis of the burning of copies of the Koran has led both countries to take security measures. First it was the Swedish authorities, who earlier this week announced the strengthening of border controls due to the increase in threats.

The Danish Government did so last Friday. According to its Ministry of Justice, the measure has been taken by the National Police following a recommendation from the intelligence services (PET). This greater control will imply that random controls will increase at the border with Sweden and Germany. The measure will be in force until next Thursday.

One of the leaders of the council, General Mohamed Toumba, has taken the floor to denounce the “hidden in the shadows who plot subversion against the progress of Niger” and to ensure that the military is “aware of their Machiavellian plan”. .

Toumba acted as spokesman for the coup leader, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, from whom he conveyed a message of encouragement: “We have not come this far to go back,” he indicated.. “The general has asked me to greet you, that the mobilization is up to the task, because he follows it live, and strongly demonstrates the support he has to change Niger,” he added during his brief speech, collected by the agency Nigerian ANP News.

The city is still in tension, awaiting ECOWAS's decision, after a night in which groups of young people have formed “vigilance units” in the capital to warn about possible “suspicious acts” in view of the possibility that produce an intervention.

Dozens of people have gathered since the weekend began in the main squares of the capital, after the military junta asked citizens to remain “alert” to the possibility of the presence of “spies and foreign forces.”

This group of volunteers, who belong to the committees in support of the military junta that called demonstrations these days in their favor, have established traffic controls at various roundabouts and entrances to the city, also carrying out searches in vehicles, according to reports. Several sources pointed to the German agency DPA.