After four days of being found guilty of doubly qualified homicide with treachery and for the premeditated concurrence of two or more people, for the crime of Fernando Báez Sosa, the eight rugby players and their families are already thinking about strategies to appeal the ruling.
The defendantswho are currently being held in the Melchor Romero prison, have 20 days to appeal the conviction before the Buenos Aires Court of Cassation, for which reason some of the parents of the rugby players They are looking for new lawyers for their defense.
It should be remembered that, since they were arrested and during the trial, the eight rugby players They were represented by the lawyer Hugo Tomei, who is also the godfather of Emilia Pertossi, one of the lawyers in the case, sister of Ciro and Luciano Pertossi and cousin of Lucas Pertossi.
As it was known, some of the parents would be dissatisfied with the way Tomei handled the trial. For this reason, they are looking for new representatives to appeal the sentences.
For the case, Máximo Thomsen, Ciro Pertossi, Enzo Comelli, Matías Benicelli and Luciano Pertossi received life imprisonment; while Blas Cinalli, Ayrton Viollaz and Lucas Pertossi received a sentence of 15 years.
What the defense of the defendants will seek is that they be convicted of simple homicide with eventual intent or preterintentional homicide: with this, the sentence could be between 8 and 25 years, for the first case, and between 1 to 3 years for the second.
For their part, the lawyers representing Gabriela Sosa and Silvino Báez, the parents of Fernando Báez Sosa, are advancing in the administrative procedures so that the case reaches the Buenos Aires Criminal Cassation Court, in order to review the sentences of 15 years received by three of the eight accused of homicide.
How rugbiers spend their days at Melchor Romero
After receiving the sentence in the courts of Dolores, the eight accused They were transferred to the Melchor Romero prison, in La Plata, where they had been held before the trial. They will remain there until it is determined to which prison each one will be sent to pay the sentence.
The Melchor Romero is a high security housing unit for inmates in transit. There, the convicts are kept together in four cells and are allowed to spend 3 hours in the open air. However, for security reasons, they do not have contact with other prisoners.
In the prison they can also receive visits from their relatives on assigned days, they can attend school, they have workshops, a church, a sports field, and physical education.
