Buenos Aires, March 12: An Argentine court on Tuesday started its trial of seven healthcare professionals accused of negligence in the death of soccer great Diego Maradona, at age 60.
Maradona was under the care of those professionals when he had a cardiac arrest in a house outside Buenos Aires on November 25, 2020.
Three judges will decide whether those charged, including a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist and several medical staffers, are guilty of manslaughter. The maximum jail time for those sentenced is 25 years.
According to the prosecution, the accused professionals didn’t provide adequate medical care.
Prosecutor Patricio Ferrari said he will provide evidence that, between Nov. 11-25 2020, Maradona was taken to a house in a private neighbourhood in the town of Tigre, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, without being in “full use of his mental faculties” to decide on home hospitalization.
Ferrari said it was a reckless hospitalization in which there was no control.
“After condemning him to oblivion in that house… they deliberately and cruelly decided that he should die,” he said.
The prosecutor showed an image of the former soccer star lying in the bed where he was found dead with his abdomen visibly swollen.
The tearful family of the 1986 World Cup winner were present at the courtroom. Maradona’s oldest daughters, Dalma and Giannina, sat in the front row near Verónica Ojeda, former partner of the footballer, and Jana, another of his daughters.
Minutes before the start of the trial, Ojeda shared a video on social media of Maradona’s son Diego Fernando wearing a T-shirt with the face of the football star, and the word “justice.” The trial could last up to four months and there will be three hearings per week.
The spotlight is on neurosurgeon Leonardo Luque, Maradona’s personal physician for the last four years of his life. He performed surgery to remove a blood clot from the former footballer’s brain just weeks before his death.
Six other professionals will be on trial.
Psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, who prescribed the medication that Maradona took until the time of his death, psychologist Carlos Díaz, Nancy Forlini, a coordinator of the medical company hired for Maradona’s care during his hospitalization, Mariano Perroni, a representative of the company that rendered nursing service, Dr. Pedro Di Spagna, who monitored his treatment, and nurse Ricardo Almirón.
Gisela Madrid, a nurse who was also indicted, will be tried by a jury later this year. (AP)
