Argentine rugby demands justice for Federico Martin Aramburu at the opening of his trial in Paris

Argentine rugby has its eyes on Paris, where the trial for the assassination of Federico Martin Aramburu opens on Monday. The Pumas of the Argentina team, like their supporters, are eager for justice, for an act which, four years later, “does not enter into the mind”.

Warming up for their match against Australia on Saturday in Mendoza, the Argentine XV wore a black t-shirt emblazoned with “Justicia por Fede” and the number 13 of the former 22-cap center. The player fell in 2022 in Paris, after a futile argument, under the bullets of a former ultra-right soldier. A tribute repeated during the matches of the URBA championship in Buenos Aires, with special emotion at CASI (Club Atletico San Isidro), Martin Aramburu's youth club.

“We are facing a very tough month”

Saturday was “a day to fool around.” A demand for justice with all the seriousness it deserves,” CASI coach Oscar Murgier, 45, undoubtedly one of the Argentines closest to Martin Aramburu, explains to AFP. With him, literally at his side since he also played center or winger, Oscar played at CASI since the age of 5-6. Fede was its captain before his flight to Europe in 2004.

“The reality is that we are approaching a very difficult month,” confides Oscar, “while the verdict is expected on September 25. We start to feel a knot in our stomach thinking about what will happen at the trial, and because beyond everything, Fede will not come back, nothing will bring Fede back to us. But yes, there will be justice.”

Even if his tone tenses when mentioning the “crazy people” who are going to be judged, Oscar M, like others, does not wish to advance any expectation, any wish for this or that sentence, at the trial which begins on Monday. The Argentine Federation (UAR) for its part expressed in a press release “its support for the demand for justice” for Martin Aramburu.