The Spanish Daniel Sancho Bronchano acknowledged this Sunday that he is guilty of the murder in Thailand of his Colombian friend Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, and that he did it because he felt like his hostage.

“I am guilty, but I was Edwin's hostage. held me hostage. It was a glass cage, but it was a cage. It made me destroy my relationship with my girlfriend, it forced me to do things I would never have done,” Sancho said during a conversation in front of his Thai public defenders and several officers at the Koh Phangan police station, where he is being held.

Sancho, 29, the son of Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, has been in police custody since Friday and pleaded guilty to Arrieta's murder and dismemberment on Saturday, although no formal charges have yet been filed against him.

Asked if he felt forced by police to plead guilty, he replied: “I didn't feel comfortable, but I didn't feel forced either.”

“I felt like I didn't have any other choice either.. They took DNA tests and that's it. He deceived me, he made me believe that what he wanted was to do business with me, put money in the company of which I am a partner. That we do things together, that we go to Mexico, Chile, Colombia, to open a restaurant. But it was all a lie. The only thing she wanted was me, to be her boyfriend,” he said.

Sancho, who arrived in Thailand on July 30 and on the island of Phangan on August 1, recounted that the Colombian surgeon decided to join his trip: “Every time I tried to get away from him, he threatened me,” he added.

Has kept in touch with family and friends

The suspect insisted during the conversation that the Thai authorities were treating him well, and that “no one has hit me or hurt me”, revealing that he had spoken during his detention with his father and friends.

Regarding his father, actor Rodolfo Sancho, he said he believed he was on his way to Thailand and would arrive in Samui on Monday or Tuesday.

Thai agents today took Sancho to different parts of the island to reconstruct the crime, police sources confirmed, including Haad Rin beach, where the young man was supposedly with Arrieta shortly before his disappearance.

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

“Edwin's departure hurts in our souls. Great human being, friend and excellent professional. Our most sincere condolences and a big hug for all his relatives,” Carlos Ordosgoitia, mayor of Montería, the capital of Córdoba, wrote on his Twitter account.

The Arrieta family reported this Saturday that they will not make statements so as not to hinder the investigation into his murder.