Trial over Diego Maradona’s death: 48 months later, no answers leave Argentines angry

Trial over Diego Maradona’s death: 48 months later, no answers leave Argentines angry

It’s been more than four years since Diego Maradona passed away. Aged 60, the footballing icon had succumbed to a heart attack while recovering from surgery done on a brain clot. However, his faithful back in Argentina still fume with questions which are yet to be answered.

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 legend’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 – for his flawed genius that led Argentina to World Cup glory in 1986.

Argentina will begin a trial this week into the medical team of late football 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 was supposed to begin in October last year but a court in San Isidro, a town on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, granted the request of three of the eight defendants to postpone for a second time. The proceedings were originally scheduled for June 4, 2024.

Expected to last for months, the trial 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.

The court 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.

There are eight members from Maradona’s medical team which have been charged, including neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, psychologist Carlos Diaz, medical coordinator Nancy Forlini, nursing coordinator Mariano Perroni, doctor Pedro Pablo Di Spagna, and nurse Ricardo Almiro.

Another nurse in Gisela Dahiana Madrid has asked to be tried separately, which will be done in July, according to Al Jazeera.

While there was sharpened anger around his death, a medical board appointed to investigate the circumstances concluded in early 2021 that the football 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.”

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.”

(With inputs from Reuters)