Last week, the Criminal Cassation Chamber of the Province of Buenos Aires confirmed the sentences for the eight rugby players convicted of the murder of
Fernando Báez Sosa
: five of the accused received life imprisonment and the remaining three received a sentence of 15 years in prison. Now, one of the young men,
Máximo Thomsen
, decided to abandon Hugo Tomei's defense and changed lawyers. This new strategy, to which the accused Matías Benicelli also joined, would arise from the idea of seeking the annulment or ineffectiveness of the sentence.
“What's up with the new sentence? "What do you think?"
one of Thomsen's followers asked this afternoon in a question box in the stories of his personal Instagram. He, who faces a sentence of life imprisonment, replied:
“News soon
. ”
That brevity came sooner than expected: during these last hours the name of
Francisco Oneto
, former candidate for vice governor of the province of Buenos Aires for La Libertad Avanza, began to circulate.
Oneto himself confirmed
this information to
Clarín , from now on
he only assumes the defense of Máximo Thomsen
. But he explained that for the moment he and his team are studying the case in depth before making any statement aimed at expressing in some way what the direction will be from now on.
Hugo Tomei had been, until now, the lawyer who defended the eight involved during the oral trial in the Oral Criminal Court No. 1 of Dolores. Now he will not represent either Thomsen
or Matías Benicelli
.
The latter is another of those involved who received a life sentence, he will be represented by Carlos Attías. As reported by
TN,
this lawyer will only lead Benicelli's technical defense before the Supreme Court of the Province of Buenos Aires and will seek to have the sentence declared null and void.
The change in the Cassation ruling
The judges of Chamber II -Fernando Mancini and María Florencia Budiño- considered that Fernando's homicide
was committed with premeditation
, with the participation of two or more people, as prescribed by article 80 of the National Penal Code.
The Chamber ratified each of the sentences, but
made a modification
. The rugby players were convicted of homicide aggravated by the premeditated participation of one or more persons with treachery, but the judges determined that there was no such treachery during the crime. Although the figure of premeditation was maintained, the sentences were not modified.
In this way, Máximo Thomsen, Enzo Comelli, Matías Benicelli, Luciano Pertossi, and Ciro Pertossi must serve the sentence of
life imprisonment for co-authorship
of the murder on January 18, 2020 at the door of the Le Brique bowling alley, in Villa Gesell. The sentences of Blas Cinalli, Ayrton Viollaz and Lucas Pertossi to 15 years in prison as secondary participants in the homicide were also final.
Hugo Tomei's defense had proposed that the crime should be considered
a homicide in a fight
, a legal figure that would have resulted in a reduction in the sentence, but the chamber members only accepted the proposal to eliminate the aggravating circumstance of treachery from the classification.
Tomei had requested before Cassation
the annulment of the entire procedure
from the moment the rugby players were arrested, a few hours after the crime. According to his opinion, a series of irregularities occurred at that time that had forced his clients to incriminate themselves.
MG