The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation dismissed on Tuesday an appeal filed by the defense of Matías Benicelli, one of the eight rugby players convicted for the murder of Fernando Báez Sosa. The ruling was unequivocal: the motion did not comply with the corresponding procedural steps and, therefore, would not be considered.
Benicelli's new attorney, Carlos Alberto Manuel Attías, had requested that the life imprisonment sentence imposed on his client be revoked. The central argument was that during the oral trial, adequate technical defense had not been guaranteed. Specifically, he targeted the performance of Hugo Tomei, the lawyer who represented the eight defendants both during the investigation and at trial.
According to the motion, the defendants had conflicting interests that required individual defenses and not a common strategy. This alleged incompatibility, according to Attías, constituted a violation of the constitutional right to defense.
Beyond the content of the motion, what determined its rejection was a procedural error. The complaint appeal was filed directly with the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, when it should have first been submitted to the Supreme Court of Buenos Aires Province through a federal extraordinary appeal.
