Seven medical professionals who cared for Argentine football legend Diego Maradona during his final days go on trial Tuesday accused of criminal negligence over his death.

Maradona died on 25 November 2020 aged 60 while recovering from brain surgery for a blood clot, after decades battling cocaine and alcohol addictions.

Each defendant risks between eight and 25 years in prison if convicted of “homicide with possible intent” — allegedly for pursuing a course of action despite knowing it could lead to the footballer’s death.

The passing of the star of the 1986 World Cup plunged Argentina into mourning in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tens of thousands of people queued to bid farewell to the former Boca Juniors and Napoli striker as his body lay in state in the presidential palace.

More than 100 witnesses, including members of Maradona’s family and doctors who tended to him over the years, are expected to take the stand in the long-delayed trial in the Buenos Aires suburb of San Isidro.

The hearings are expected to run until July.

Warning signs

Maradona was found dead in bed two weeks after going under the knife, in a rented house in an exclusive Buenos Aires neighborhood where he was brought after being discharged from hospital.

He was found to have died of a heart attack.

The night nurse said he had seen “warning signs” but had received orders “not to wake” Maradona.

The defendants in the case are a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a medical coordinator, a nursing coordinator, a doctor and the night nurse.

The day nurse, who found Maradona dead, asked to be tried by jury separately.

Prosecutors have accused the medical team of pushing for Maradona to receive home care, which proved “reckless” and “totally deficient.”

They allege the footballer was abandoned to his fate for a “prolonged, agonizing period” before his death.

A panel of 20 medical experts convened by Argentina’s public prosecutor concluded in 2021 that Maradona “would have had a better chance of survival” with adequate treatment in an appropriate medical facility.

The residence where he was staying notably had no defibrillator.

Maradona’s family claim that leaked audio and text messages show that the star’s health was in imminent danger, said Mario Baudry, a lawyer for Maradona’s son Dieguito.

He said the messages showed the medical team’s strategy was to try and ensure that Diego’s daughters did not intervene “because if they did, they (the medical staff) would lose their money.”

‘Justice for Diego’

The accused all deny responsibility in the star’s death.

Vadim Mischanchuk, lawyer for psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, said he was “very optimistic” of an acquittal, arguing his client was in charge of Maradona’s mental, not physical health.

In the La Paternal neighborhood of Buenos Aires where the player nicknamed “El Pibe de Oro” (The Golden Boy) revealed his prodigious talent as a player for Argentinos Juniors in the 1970s, graffiti urging “Justice for Diego!” was daubed on walls ahead of the trial.

“All society needs to know… what really happened, who abandoned him… and whoever is responsible must pay the price,” pensioner Hilda Pereira told AFP.

Maradona “did not deserve to die as he died, alone,” she added, her voice quavering.

For its part, Argentina’s left-wing Pagina 12 newspaper wondered: “Will anyone be found guilty for Maradona’s death?”

-AFP

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Argentina will begin a trial this week into the medical team of late soccer icon Diego Maradona over homicide by negligence, a case that has charged up emotions in the country where the World Cup winner still commands almost God-like reverence.

The trial, expected to last for months, starts on Tuesday, over four years after Maradona’s death in November 2020 from heart failure at age 60 after undergoing brain surgery days earlier. His medical team generally rejects the charges.

A court in San Isidro, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, will listen to nearly 120 testimonies. The defendants are charged with “simple homicide with eventual intent” in the treatment of the former Boca Juniors and Napoli player.

Maradona’s death rocked the South American nation where he was revered, prompting a period of mourning and angry finger pointing about who was to blame after the icon’s years-long battle with addiction and ill health.

Nicknamed “D10S”, a play on the Spanish word for god, and “Pelusa” for his prominent hair, Maradona battled alcohol and drug addiction, but was adored – including in tattoos, opens new tab – for his flawed genius that led Argentina to World Cup glory in 1986.

That sharpened anger around his death, while a medical board appointed to investigate the circumstances concluded in early 2021 that the soccer star’s medical team had acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless manner”.

“I hope there’s justice because they killed him. Diego (Maradona) should be alive,” Argentina merchant Luis Alberto Suarez told Reuters in Buenos Aires. “They didn’t take care of him.”

A medical board appointed to investigate Maradona’s death found in early 2021 that the soccer star’s medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless manner”.

Not everyone was so sure, however.

“I can only speak from what I see from the outside. But we can’t say if they were wrong or not,” said self-employed worker Martin Milei.

“In hindsight, they got it completely wrong. But I think there are more people responsible than what’s being said.”

Unemployed Argentine Pablo Knopfler said he hoped that the trial would uncover the truth.

“I hope there’s a trial to know with more clarity what happened to Diego,” he said. “Perhaps there’s someone up above us or maybe Diego himself who wants to shed light on what happened to him so that the truth is revealed.”

Reuters

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Players’ union FIFPRO called for a review of governance in Gabonese soccer after welcoming on Wednesday a life ban handed by world body FIFA to a former youth coach found guilty of the sexual abuse of players.

The banned former under-17 coach, Patrick Assoumou Eyi, was also fined 1 million Swiss francs ($1.13 million).

FIFA’s independent ethics committee found Eyi guilty of “abusing his position and committing repeated acts of sexual abuse against multiple players” between 2006 and 2021.

FIFPRO said the ban was the result of “over three years of sustained pressure from civil society, FIFPRO and the media to ensure accountability” but there was more to be done.

“This case illustrates the systemic nature of this grave problem, where an individual may be sanctioned, but the same governance system that allowed it to occur in the first place remains,” it said.

Remy Ebanega, president of the Gabonese player union, said in the statement that the abuse had been widely known about within Gabonese football but “many of those in power chose to turn a blind eye”.

“Ignoring abuse is a clear breach of FIFA regulations, and we now expect a full review of the Gabonese FA’s suitability to govern football in Gabon,” he said.

Reuters has sought a comment from the Gabonese soccer body Fegafoot. There was no mention of FIFA’s action on their Facebook page or website.

-Reuters

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