The retrial of Diego Maradona’s medical staff, who have been accused of ‘treating the football icon like an animal in a house of horrors’, has begun.
Maradona died in 2020 aged 60 and seven of his medical staff went on trial facing allegations of negligence.
But that trial collapsed after one of the three judges involved, Julieta Makintach, compromised the legal process by appearing in a six-part documentary entitled ‘Divine Justice’.
The retrial began on Tuesday at a court in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires.
The defendants have denied all the charges of ‘simple homicide with eventual intent’ in Maradona’s treatment. They face prison sentences of between eight and 25 years.
Those defendents are Agustina Cosachov (psychiatrist), Leopoldo Luque (neurosurgeon), Carlos Angel Diaz (psychologist), Nancy Edith Forlini (physician), Ricardo Almiron (nurse), Mariano Ariel Perroni (head nurse) and physician Pedro Pablo Di Spagna.
The late Diego Maradona (right) shakes hands with his doctor Leopoldo Luque, who has been charged, in Olivos, Buenos Aires province, Argentina, on November 11, 2020
Gianinna Maradona (right) and the legal teams were packed into the courtroom on Tuesday
Another nurse, Dahiana Madrid, will also face charges in court at a later date.
There are 100 witnesses set to give evidence in the case and gruesome details of Maradona’s final days and living conditions were revealed in the original five-month trial.
The Argentina legend had been in immense pain while recovering from surgery to remove a blood clot.
He was said to be lying in a dark room in agony for a day-and-a-half before suffering the heart attack that killed him and the autopsy expert called to the stand said the organ weighed twice the normal amount.
Maradona’s family alleged negligence, a cover-up, and derogatory comments from the medical team who oversaw his care – calling it a ‘mafia’.
Maradona had struggled with drug addiction, obesity and alcoholism for decades, and reportedly came close to death in 2000 and 2004.
But prosecutors suspect that – were it not for the negligence of his doctors – his death could have been avoided.
The prosecutor’s office assembled a medical board made up of a dozen experts – including forensic doctors, cardiologists, psychiatrists and toxicologists – to see if there was evidence of Maradona’s medics committing culpable homicide.
In an explosive 2021 report, the board accused the former football star’s medical team of acting in an ‘inappropriate, deficient and reckless manner.’
It is alleged that Maradona was permitted by medical staff to drink beer, had sleeping pills dissolved in alcohol and was washed with a hose rather than assisted to a shower.
Maradona’s home was described by chief prosecutor Patricio Ferrari as a ‘house of horror’ where ‘nobody did what they had to do’.
He also shocked the court by showing an image of Maradona on the day he died with his stomach protruding from a black T-shirt while lying on his back. ‘This is the way he died’, Ferrari said.
Last year, Dalma Maradona, the legend’s eldest daughter, shared a video containing audio she claims proves serious irregularities in her father’s care. And she revealed that her mother is in fear of the ‘mafia’ who ‘control everything’.
‘My mother is worried because she is afraid,’ she said on the Angel Responde show on Bondi Live.
Fans of the Argentina icon were lining the streets prior to the retrial starting
‘Afraid of the mafia, of those who control everything, have money and power. But I don’t care. I know who I am up against, but I cannot remain silent. We need people to know the truth. My mother tells me all the time “shut up, don’t say anything, I’m scared,” but I can’t. I owe it to him.’
Dalma was previously reported to have alleged that a ‘mafia of assassins’ caused her father’s death. She claims there are recordings that exist that prove a lack of medical attention with conversations about cover-ups and professional negligence, Argentine outlet Diario Registrado report.
Maradona won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986, having knocked England out in the quarter final with the infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal and another – later voted ‘Goal of the Century.’
Renowned for his breathtaking playing ability, Maradona’s wild life off the pitch was equally notorious; running around with the mafia in Naples, serial womanising and a dependency on alcohol and cocaine.
