The Buenos Aires Cassation Defense Office has asked the Supreme Court to annul the 15-year sentence given to Lucas Pertossi, one of the rugby players convicted in the 2020 murder of Fernando Báez Sosa in Villa Gesell. The request claims a conflict of interest in his defense and a violation of the right to effective legal assistance. The victim's family lawyer, Fernando Burlando, denied any nullity request and stated that only previously rejected complaints are being processed.
The murder of Fernando Báez Sosa took place in January 2020 outside the Le Brique disco in Villa Gesell, where a group of eight rugby players attacked the 18-year-old, causing his death from blows. In the 2023 trial at the Criminal Court No. 1 of Dolores, five of the defendants—Máximo Thomsen, Enzo Comelli, Matías Benicelli, Luciano Pertossi, and Ciro Pertossi—received life imprisonment as co-authors of the doubly aggravated homicide by premeditation and treachery. Lucas Pertossi, along with Blas Cinalli and Ayrton Viollaz, was sentenced to 15 years as a necessary participant.
The Buenos Aires Cassation Defense Office, through lawyer Ignacio Nolfi, filed an in pauperis appeal with the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to annul Pertossi's sentence. The document, accessed by Perfil, argues that attorney Hugo Tomei, who represented all eight accused in a common sponsorship, created conflicting interests by not differentiating defense strategies based on each one's level of participation. "The adopted homogenized defense prevented the deployment of central argumentative lines in favor of Pertossi, conditioned his statement, limited the scope of his recourse rights, and deprived him of an individualized assessment of his criminal responsibility according to the evidence against him," the text states.
It also questions the imprecision in the facts charged against Pertossi from the investigation stage and procedural flaws. According to the defense, his role was "secondary and peripheral": he filmed part of the incident, had a minor altercation with a third party, and left before the end of the beating, as shown by security cameras, implying a "temporal and spatial disconnection." Additionally, it criticizes the reasoning of judges María Claudia Castro, Christian Ariel Rabaia, and Emiliano Javier Lázzari for inconsistencies in the sequence of intent and lack of congruence between the accusation and the sentence.
The request invokes constitutional and international principles requiring "effective and substantial" legal assistance. The Buenos Aires Court had previously rejected Tomei's extraordinary recourse.
Meanwhile, Fernando Burlando, the lawyer for the Báez Sosa family, questioned Pertossi's defense claim and ruled out any reduction in the sentence. He told TN that there is no nullity request in process, only previously rejected complaints, and that the convictions "have enjoyed much legal robustness." He added that it is "very difficult" for the scenario to change.
