A SPANISH man who was convicted of murder in 2016 has lost his final appeal and will be executed, the Supreme Court of Thailand has ruled.
Atur Segarra is believed to have held compatriot David Bernat hostage in Bangkok, tortured him for seven days, trying to force him to send money to Segarra’s bank account, before killing him and dismembering his body. The Catalonian pleaded innocent.
The magistrates rejected his last appeal, to which Segarra told the press ‘it is not a surprise,’ and that ‘it had not been a fair trial.’
There have been no eyewitnesses to the murder, but there was substantial CCTV and DNA evidence.
This has left the April 2017 sentence firm. But Segarra can ask the Royal House of Thailand to commute the death penalty for life imprisonment and, once he has served at least one year of the sentence, request extradition to a Spanish prison.
Segarra maintains his innocence and claims to be the victim of a trap, that of which involves his Thai ex-girlfriend, Pridsana Saen-Ubon, who testified against him last December.