Prosecutors claimed that football legend Diego Maradona was 'murdered' and died in a 'theater of horror' when a process started in Argentina of the medical team that was responsible for his care.
Maradona died at the age of 60 in November 2020 after a heart attack, only two weeks after he was released from the hospital after surgery for a bleeding on his brain.
His family claimed negligence, a cover -up and abnormal comments from the medical team that supervised his care – mentioning a 'mafia'.
Maradona has been struggling with drug addiction, obesity and alcoholism for decades and was reportedly in death in 2000 and 2004.
But public prosecutors suspect that – were it not for the negligence of his doctors – his death could have been avoided.
A trial with seven members of his medical team started on Tuesday in Buenos Aires, with an eighth compared to a trial by the jury in July.
Patricio Ferrari public prosecutor showed a picture of Maradona at the time of his death at the court on the first day of the trial, which the football legend showed completely swollen with his belly.
“Look, this is how Maradona died,” Ferrari told the court, as reported by the Argentinian newspaper Ole.
“The person you tell, the judges, that they did not notice what happened to Diego lies against your face.”
Ferrari added outside the court: 'The whole gang was only interested in completing records and forms to prove that they had done what they did not do.
“The medical team that treats him, as well as those responsible for this failed and reckless hospitalization, must be held responsible for the death of Diego Maradona.”
Maradona had died in his house two weeks after undergoing brain surgery, in which the speed of his resignation was questioned from the hospital.
Fernando Burlando, a lawyer who represented the daughters of Maradona, stated that the football legend was 'murder' and claimed that the football legend would have survived if he had stayed in the hospital.
“It was a reckless, shortcoming, an unprecedented household hospitalization,” said Burlando.
“There was no kind of control in that house, no kind of protocol in a horror theater that was that house where Diego Armando Maradona died, where nobody did what they had to do.”
A model of the house where Maradona died was shown to the court.
Seven of the eight medical professionals who have been charged in the case, including the brain surgeon of Maradona, psychiatrist and nurses, are now on trial for culpable murder, a crime that is roughly equal to involuntary manslaughter.
They deny misconduct, but could get up to 25 years in prison.
Leopoldo Luque, who for years served as Maradona's personal doctor, performed the operation that removed his brain blood clot on November 3, 2020.
Luque supervised the transition from the hospital home after the operation of Maradona. The rapid dismissal raised questions at the time, in which some experts suggested that Maradona should have stayed in the hospital for longer after his operation.
A lawyer who defended Luque claimed that the football player insisted that he was released from the hospital.
“Death unexpectedly took place, suddenly, during sleep hours, without offering us,” the lawyer said.
Luque's lawyer said that Maradona died after an 'unforeseeable' heart event.
Psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov is also one of the medical team, after prescribing Maradona's medicines.
No alcohol or illegal drugs was detected in the toxicological test performed after the death of Maradona. But the report said that Maradona had psychotropic drugs for fear and depression in his system when he died.
A lawyer who represents Cosachov said that “new evidence proves that there is no criminal responsibility” for the death of Maradona.
The five other defendants are: Carlos Diaz, an addiction specialist who had supervised the treatment of Maradona for alcohol dependence; Nancy Forlini, a doctor who had helped Maradona's home care; Mariano Perroni, a nursing coordinator; Ricardo Almiron, another nurse who took care of the former athlete and Pedro Pablo di Spagna, a clinical doctor.
A third nurse, Gisela Dahiana Madrid, has asked to be tried by the jury separately at a later time.
It is expected that more than 100 witness statements will be presented to the court, whereby the case is expected to take approximately three to four months.
Members of the Maradona family, including his ex-wife Veronica Ojeda, were present before the court before the start of the trial.
Proponents of Maradona had gathered outside the field for the process.
The office of the public prosecutor had compiled a medical administration consisting of a dozen experts – including forensic doctors, cardiologists, psychiatrists and toxicologists – to see if there were indications that the doctors of Maradona are guilty.
In an explosive report of 2021, the board accused the medical team of the former football player of action in an 'inappropriate, shortcoming and reckless way'.
The experts also wondered why Maradona was released from the hospital so quickly after his operation when he was unable to take care of himself and had limited or no access to critical medical devices, such as an oxygen tube and a defibrillator, who manages an electric shock to restore the heart rhythm.
Last year a medical report from medical researcher Pablo Ferrari claimed that the fast and whimsical heartbeat of Maradona was of natural origin or came from an 'external' factor, possibly a medicine like cocaine.
Maradona had fought against alcohol and drug addiction for many years and had undergone brain operation in November 2020.
Maradona won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986, after beating England in the quarterfinals with the infamous 'hand of God' goal and another – later 'goal of the century' voted.
Known for his breathtaking playing ability, Maradona's wild life was just as notorious; Running around with the Mafia in Naples, serial femaleization and a deadly dependence on alcohol and cocaine.
Argentina went from mourning in three days in which his body was in the state in the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace in Buenos Aires.
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