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Dolores (Argentina) (AFP) – Five friends between the ages of 21 and 23, colleagues in a small provincial rugby club, were sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime of the young Fernando Báez Sosa, beaten to death three years ago in Argentina, a case that shocked the country.
The sentence for doubly aggravated homicide against Máximo Thomsen, Ciro Pertossi, Matías Benicelli, Luciano Pertossi and Enzo Comelli was read this Monday before the convicted in the courtroom in the city of Dolores, in a hearing in which the parents of Baez Sosa.
Three other young rugby players, Blas Cinalli, Lucas Pertossi and Ayrton Viollaz, were sentenced to 15 years in prison, being considered secondary participants.
The reading of the sentence, agreed unanimously, was broadcast live on television. In Dolores, 220 kilometers south of Buenos Aires, dozens of people expressed their solidarity with the parents of Báez Sosa.
Thomsen, considered the leader of the group, fainted when he learned of the verdict of perpetuity, the maximum sentence contemplated by Argentine law.
The trial that began on January 2 captivated the country, which had been moved by the crime of the 18-year-old law student, which occurred on January 18, 2020 in Villa Gesell, 370 km south of Buenos Aires.
That summer, the convicts vacationed in that seaside resort on the Argentine Atlantic coast, very popular among young people.
That night they were kicked out of a nightclub where a fight had started. In the street, the rugbiers isolated Báez Sosa and attacked him with their fists and kicks, in a beating that caused him death from multiple injuries.
“Powerful”
“We are strong,” said Graciela Sosa, the victim’s mother, as she and her husband Silvino entered the court. “Justice is perpetual,” the woman asserted just before learning of the ruling.
The prosecution had requested life imprisonment for the eight defendants, evoking the “will to kill” on the part of “everyone”, with a “synchronized coordination” that prevented third parties from coming to the aid of Báez Sosa. The young man’s family lawyer, Fernando Burlando, had made the same request.
This Monday, Burlando declared that he will appeal in Cassation to ensure that all the sentences are in perpetuity.
“The most important thing is that the fact is proven. The three defendants who benefited from 15 years in prison are our main objective,” he told the press.
During the arguments, the defendants, at times in tears, had expressions such as “I apologize”, “I apologize”, “there was no intention to kill”, “there was no plan (to kill)” and “I am sorry”.
The eight rugbiers, all from the small town of Zárate, near Buenos Aires, arrested on the day of the crime, have been in pretrial detention since 2020.
Báez Sosa was the son of a caregiver for the elderly and a bricklayer, both Paraguayan immigrants. He had started a law career, after graduating from a Catholic parochial school and doing charity work.
His crime triggered a series of demonstrations of repudiation and support for the family, with intense debates about alcohol consumption by young people, the construction of masculinity, xenophobia and racism in this country that identifies itself as descendants of of European immigrants.
Rugby in Argentina is amateur and historically it is the middle and upper class sectors that practice it or attend matches.
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