In 2020, the Argentine Fernando Báez Sosa, 18, died after a beating inflicted by several rugby players his age at the exit of a nightclub on the Argentine coast.
The accused of hitting him with a deadly kick to the head, Máximo Thomsen, testified this Monday by surprise before the court that is trying him along with seven other defendants.
“I want to apologize because never in my life would it have occurred to me to kill someone.
I heard various things about myself over the years.
I did not recognize why they generated so much hatred towards me, I would never in life have that intention, ”he said through tears.
Thomsen said that he found out about the death of Báez Sosa at the police station, when a police officer informed them that they were in jail because they had beaten him to death.
"There everything began to spin in my head and I started to vomit, but I didn't believe it until the next day, my head couldn't process it because I didn't understand it," he added in the Criminal Courtroom. #1 of Dolores.
The defense strategy is to deny that the defendants intended to assassinate Báez Sosa.
They are accused of doubly aggravated homicide for treachery and participation of two or more people, charges that Argentine law punishes with life imprisonment.
During his statement, Thomsen assured that he did not remember exactly what happened at dawn on January 18, 2020 due to the alcohol he had drunk, but he did admit to having kicked the victim when he was already on the ground.
"I hit one or two kicks, I wouldn't know who or how," he acknowledged.
His words further break the pact of silence that the eight former players of the Náutico Arsenal Zárate rugby club had established.
Last week another of the defendants, Luciano Pertossi, took the floor to deny that he was one of those who appear in the recorded videos of the beating inflicted on one of the main streets of the coastal town of Villa Gesell.
"A nightmare"
Before Thomsen declared his mother, Rosalía Zárate, who recounted that her son's imprisonment is compounded by the fight against cancer detected two years ago.
“All I do is leave my house to go see my son in prison and go to the doctor.
So two years ago.
I can't take it anymore, I can't keep coping with all this.
It is a nightmare, ”she assured.
The judges also heard the testimony of María Paula Cinalli, mother of another of the defendants, Blas Cinalli, who lamented the public persecution suffered by the defendants and their families for three years.
“All this affected us a lot, it was an unfortunate event, a very big misfortune.
Personally, I am very sorry that it affected all of us, it continues to affect us, I don't even want to think what the parents of this deceased young man must have suffered, ”she declared.
“I have received attacks, not from people who know me, but I have suffered attacks.
The lawyer present has called my son 'son of a bitch' and that really crowns a series of unfortunate events that have been born on January 18, 2020 ″, she added.
The Prosecutor's Office has exposed to the court videos recorded that morning in which the defendants are seen beating and kicking the immobile victim on the ground.
Among the evidence is also the blood of Báez Sosa found on the clothes of four of the defendants and the messages they exchanged in the following hours.
The trial has revived the commotion caused by the crime of Báez Sosa in Argentina, with numerous demonstrations in support of the family and demands for justice.
About 70 witnesses are called to testify before the Dolores court.
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