Eight people who cared for the football legend Diego Maradona will be tried in Argentine courts for murder. The court’s decision was released this Wednesday (22) after an investigation into the player’s death from cardiac arrest in November 2020.
In the 236-page document reviewed by Reuters, the judge in charge of the case questioned “the behaviors – active or inactive – of each of the defendants that led to and contributed to the realization of the harmful outcome”.
The ruling says eight people, including doctors, nurses and a psychologist who cared for Maradona at the time of his death, are charged with “simple murder”, a serious charge that means taking life with intent.
A medical board appointed to investigate the death concluded in 2021 that the star’s medical staff had acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless manner”.
Maradona was considered one of the greatest football players in history, although the player struggled with drug and alcohol abuse for years.
Mario Baudry, a lawyer for one of Maradona’s sons, told Reuters the World Cup winner was “in a state of helplessness” at the time of his death. The coach died on November 25, 2020, aged 60.
“As soon as I saw the cause, I said it was homicide. I fought for a long time and here we are, with this stage completed”, he said.
Argentine prosecutors launched investigations shortly after the player’s death at a house near Buenos Aires, including ordering searches of his personal doctor’s properties and investigating other people involved in his care.
The defendants named in the decision were Maradona’s neurosurgeon and personal physician Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, psychologist Carlos Diaz, nurses Gisella Madrid and Ricardo Almiron, his boss Mariano Perroni, and doctors Pedro Di Spagna and Nancy Forlini.
The defendants denied responsibility for the athlete’s death. The judge said that lawyers for some of them asked that the case be dropped.
Vadim Mischanchuk, Cosachov’s lawyer, said he would appeal the decision, adding that the psychiatrist’s area of care had nothing to do with the cause of death.
“A culprit is being sought at all costs and objectivity is being lost”, argues the lawyer.
Reuters was unable to immediately contact the defendants or other attorneys for comment.
The crime of “simple homicide” in Argentina usually carries a sentence of 8 to 25 years in prison, according to the country’s penal code. No date has yet been set for the trial.
Source: CNN Brasil
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