Court upholds Segarra verdict
The Appeal Court yesterday upheld the death sentence handed down to a Spanish man convicted of murdering and dismembering the body of a fellow Spaniard two years ago.
Artur Segarra Princep, 39, was charged with premeditated murder, destroying and concealing a human body, illegal detention, and other charges in connection with the death of David Bernat, 41.
Segarra, who had entered pleas of not guilty, was convicted by the Criminal Court last year and given a death sentence.
He was taken to the courthouse from Bang Kwang Central Prison yesterday to hear the Appeal Court’s ruling.
The Appeal Court stood by the lower court’s ruling and sentence. An interpreter was provided at the hearing.
Segarra was arrested in February 2016 at the Thai-Cambodian border in Trat’s Klong Yai district.
The gruesome murder case came to light on the morning of Jan 30, 2016, when community residents near a private shipyard close to Wat Kharuehabodi, on the banks of the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok’s Bang Phlat district, found an arm floating in the river.
Later, several more body parts were discovered floating in the river in various locations in the provinces of Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani.
Police later identified them as belonging to Bernat, a consultant to a foreign company.
The prosecutors submitted the indictment against the defendant to the court in early May 2016.
According to the prosecution, between Jan 20 and Jan 26, 2016, Segarra forcibly kept his business friend Bernat in a room at PG Condominium on Rama IX in Huai Khwang district and tortured him into transferring 10 million baht into his bank account.
Segarra withdrew about 700,000 baht in cash before killing him in the room.
The victim’s body was frozen before Segarra dismembered the corpse and dropped the bagged pieces in the Chao Phraya River.