Retrial over death of Maradona begins

A retrial into the death of Argentine football legend, Diego Maradona began yesterday, a year after the first case collapsed in a mistrial.

Seven members of his medical team are charged with negligent homicide after he died from a heart attack, aged 60.

They include his main medical adviser, Leopoldo Luque, and his psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov. His former nurse, Dahiana Gisela Madrid, will stand in a separate trial.

They have denied the allegations. If convicted, they face between eight and 25 years in prison.

Around 100 people are set to testify in front of a new set of judges at a court in San Isidro, including Maradona's daughters. The trial is expected to last until July.

The first trial collapsed last May when one of its three judges resigned after allegedly allowing unauthorised filming in court for a documentary.

Maradona died in 2020 at his home in Tigre, Buenos Aires province, while he was recuperating from surgery to remove a brain blood clot.

Investigators classified the case as culpable homicide — a crime similar to involuntary manslaughter — because they said the accused were aware of the seriousness of Maradona's health condition but did not take the necessary measures to save him.

The heart failure caused him to suffer acute pulmonary oedema, when fluid builds up in the lungs, the preliminary autopsy confirmed.

A panel of medical experts, asked by prosecutors to investigate Maradona's medical team, said the treatment he received at his home was "deficient and reckless".

It concluded that the footballer "would have had a better chance of survival" with adequate treatment in an appropriate medical facility.

When the footballer died on November 25, 2020, then President of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez, declared three days of national mourning.

"Thank you for having existed, Diego. We're going to miss you all our lives," he said.