One and a half years after Football legend Diego Maradona’s death, eight of his former medical personnel will be tried for criminal negligence. The trial date is yet to be decided.
Maradona died at age 60 in November 2020 from a heart attack at his house in Buenos Aires. He had been recovering from surgery on a brain clot he had gotten earlier that month.
Argentine prosecutors launched an investigation into the doctors and nurses involved in the case, and a judge ordered a culpable homicide trial after a medical panel found Maradona’s treatment was full of “deficiencies and irregularities.” The medical panel also stated that Maradona “would have had a better chance of survival” with treatment in an appropriate medical facility.
Among those facing the trial are Leopoldo Luque, Maradona’s neurosurgeon and personal doctor, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, two nurses, two doctors, and their boss. All eight will be tried on a legal definition of homicide — negligence committed in the knowledge that it may lead to a person’s death. Their possible sentence is eight to twenty-five years in prison, by Argentina’s penal code.
The investigation was prompted by a complaint filed by two of Maradona’s daughters, raising concern about their father’s treatment after the brain operation.
Mario Baudry, a lawyer involved in the trial, said that Maradona was “in a situation of helplessness” when he died. “As soon as I saw the cause, I said it was a homicide. I fought for a long time and here we are, with this stage completed,” he said.
Diego Maradona is considered to be one of the greatest football players in history. He scored the famous ‘Hand of God’ goal against England in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup. However, during the second half of his career, he struggled with cocaine addiction. He was banned from playing for fifteen months soon after he tested positive for the drug in 1991. The years of addiction and the brain surgery did great damage to his body.
The news of his death threw the football world and Argentina into great mourning. Thousands of fans trooped past his coffin, located in the presidential palace, over three days of national mourning. The trial and the charges that will be issued will provide the fans with an answer for the football legend’s early death.
Maradona died at age 60 in November 2020 from a heart attack at his house in Buenos Aires. He had been recovering from surgery on a brain clot he had gotten earlier that month.
Argentine prosecutors launched an investigation into the doctors and nurses involved in the case, and a judge ordered a culpable homicide trial after a medical panel found Maradona’s treatment was full of “deficiencies and irregularities.” The medical panel also stated that Maradona “would have had a better chance of survival” with treatment in an appropriate medical facility.
Among those facing the trial are Leopoldo Luque, Maradona’s neurosurgeon and personal doctor, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, two nurses, two doctors, and their boss. All eight will be tried on a legal definition of homicide — negligence committed in the knowledge that it may lead to a person’s death. Their possible sentence is eight to twenty-five years in prison, by Argentina’s penal code.
The investigation was prompted by a complaint filed by two of Maradona’s daughters, raising concern about their father’s treatment after the brain operation.
Mario Baudry, a lawyer involved in the trial, said that Maradona was “in a situation of helplessness” when he died. “As soon as I saw the cause, I said it was a homicide. I fought for a long time and here we are, with this stage completed,” he said.
Diego Maradona is considered to be one of the greatest football players in history. He scored the famous ‘Hand of God’ goal against England in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup. However, during the second half of his career, he struggled with cocaine addiction. He was banned from playing for fifteen months soon after he tested positive for the drug in 1991. The years of addiction and the brain surgery did great damage to his body.
The news of his death threw the football world and Argentina into great mourning. Thousands of fans trooped past his coffin, located in the presidential palace, over three days of national mourning. The trial and the charges that will be issued will provide the fans with an answer for the football legend’s early death.
