Maradona death trial: prosecutors seek up to 12 years for medical team
Argentine prosecutors demanded prison sentences of up to 12 years for seven medics on trial over Diego Maradona's 2020 death. The team is accused of grossly inadequate care.
Argentine prosecutors demand 12-year sentence for Maradona's lead physician
Argentine prosecutors called on Thursday for prison sentences of up to 12 years for the seven-member medical team that treated football legend Diego Maradona in the weeks before his death, the Jamaica Observer reports.
The team — including Maradona's personal physician, a psychiatrist, a psychologist and several nurses — has been on trial in San Isidro since April over the death of the 1986 World Cup star on 25 November 2020. Maradona was 60 when he died of heart failure and acute pulmonary oedema at a rented home in the Buenos Aires suburb of Tigre, two weeks after brain-clot surgery.
In his closing arguments, prosecutor Patricio Ferrai described the defendants' "chaotic organisation" as having left the ailing patient "in a helpless situation, abandoning him to his fate." He accused the medical staff of having "breached their duties, performed actions contrary to the art of healing" and of having "omitted all the acts they were required to perform."
The seven defendants are charged under the legal concept of "dolo eventual" — meaning that a person was aware their actions could cause harm but persisted regardless.
The stiffest sentence, 12 years, was sought for Maradona's personal physician, Leopoldo Luque. Prosecutors requested terms ranging from four to 10 years for the remaining defendants, amongst them a psychiatrist, a nurse and care coordinators. All have denied the charges, arguing that Maradona's death could not have been foreseen and that each fulfilled their professional obligations. Individual defendants also sought to minimise their personal share of responsibility for his care.
A central question throughout the trial has been whether the decision to allow Maradona to convalesce at a private residence — rather than in a hospital — constituted negligence. Prosecutors highlighted the near-total absence of medical equipment at the property, including no hospital bed, no defibrillator and no quickly available ambulance, as evidence of what they characterised as a dereliction of duty.
Multiple medical experts testified that Maradona's carers failed to respond to clear warning signs in the days before his death. He had been exhibiting oedema, tachycardia and breathing difficulties. "Diego Armando Maradona's death clearly did not come out of nowhere: the signs of this fatal outcome began to appear long beforehand," assistant prosecutor Cosme Iribarren told the court.
During Thursday's session prosecutors again displayed post-mortem photographs of the former footballer. Maradona's three daughters, present in court for the start of the summation phase, covered their faces to avoid seeing the images.
The summation is expected to run for approximately two weeks, with a verdict to follow at a later date. This is the second time the case has reached this stage — the first trial was annulled last year after two-and-a-half months of hearings, following revelations that one of the presiding judges had participated in a clandestine documentary about the case.
Source: Jamaica Observer