BUENOS AIRES (AP) — A court in Buenos Aires began on Tuesday the process to judge seven healthcare professionals who are accused of the negligent homicide of Diego Maradona, the Argentine soccer star who was under their care during home hospitalization when he suffered a cardiac arrest on November 25, 2020.
The panel of three judges will have to determine whether the accused, including a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist, and several nurses, are guilty of the crime of simple homicide with eventual intent, which is when the perpetrator knows that their actions could cause harm, but continues with the action. Maradona was 60 years old at the time of his death.
This is a crime that carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
The relatives of the former captain of the Argentina national team entered the room where the process was taking place in tears. The older daughters, Dalma and Giannina, sat in the front row near Verónica Ojeda, the former partner of the ex-footballer, and Jana, another daughter of the soccer star.
Close to twenty Maradona fans were at the doors of the courthouse located on the outskirts of the capital. They were wearing national team jerseys and carrying huge signs that read “Justice for D10S” (a play on words using “D10S” to refer to Maradona as a soccer god).
Minutes before the start of the trial, Ojeda shared on social media a video of her son with Maradona, Diego Fernando, in which the young man appears dressed in a shirt with the face of the soccer star printed on it and demands that his death does not go unpunished.
“We are going to hear things that will even shake the court itself,” stated Fernando Burlando, lawyer of Dalma and Giannina Maradona.
In the defendant’s bench, the spotlight is on neurosurgeon Leonardo Luque, the personal doctor of the world champion in the last four years of his life, who performed surgery on him for a cerebral blood clot just weeks before his death.
There is also psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, who prescribed the medication that Maradona consumed up until the moment of his death. Upon entering the court, fans of the “Ten” shouted insults at her.
The rest of those facing trial are psychologist Carlos Díaz; doctor Nancy Forlini, who coordinated the medical company hired to care for the patient during their hospitalization; Mariano Perroni, representative of the company providing nursing services; clinical doctor Pedro Di Spagna, responsible for monitoring the treatment, and nurse Ricardo Almirón.
Nurse Gisela Madrid, also charged by the justice system, will face trial by jury later this year.
The trial prosecutors believe that the medical team acted negligently in the treatment given to the top figure of the team that won the 1986 World Cup, and that although Maradona’s health was deteriorated due to his past habitual alcohol and drug consumption, his death could have been prevented.
The prosecutor Patricio Ferrari stated that he will provide evidence that, between November 11 and 25, 2020, Maradona was taken to a house in a private neighborhood in the town of Tigre, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, without being in “full use of his mental faculties” to decide on his home hospitalization.
For Ferrari, it was a reckless internment in which there was no control whatsoever. “After condemning him to oblivion in that house... they deliberately and cruelly decided that he should die,” he stated.
The accused deny the charges and point out that Maradona did not allow himself to be treated. They indicated that his family decided that the medical treatment should take place at that house.
Luque stated that Maradona died unexpectedly while sleeping and there was no possibility of assisting him based on a medical report proposed by his defense.
Maradona was operated on in early November 2020 for a blood clot in the brain. Later, the doctors at the sanatorium recommended his transfer to a rehabilitation clinic, but Luque and Cosachov, in agreement with the family, opted for home care, arguing that the star did not accept any other option.