New trial into Diego Maradona's death begins in San Isidro

A new trial over the death of national football icon Diego Maradona began Tuesday on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, 10 months after a scandal involving a judge caused the first trial to collapse.

Maradona – widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest-ever players – died on November 25, 2020, aged 60, while recovering at home from brain surgery for a blood clot, after decades battling cocaine and alcohol addiction.

According to the casefile, he died of heart failure, acute pulmonary oedema and dilated cardiomyopathy, just two weeks after going under the knife.

His seven-strong medical team is accused of gross negligence causing his death over the conditions of his home convalescence.

Maradona died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema – a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs – at a home in Tigre, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, two weeks after going under the knife and enduring hours of agony, according to forensic experts.

Two months into the first trial last year, after hours of sometimes tearful testimony from witnesses, including Maradona's children, proceedings were thrown into flux by revelations involving one of the three judges.

The judge in question, Julieta Makintach, was discovered to have taken part in a clandestine documentary about the case, which contained unauthorised recordings made inside the courtroom.

Video footage and images, including a trailer for the proposed documentary – tentatively titled Justicia Divina (“Divine Justice”) – were later leaked to the press. Makintach was shown walking through the courthouse corridors with electronic music playing in the background, before being interviewed in her office.

After two-and-a-half months of proceedings, the first trial was subsequently annulled over the scandal, nullifying 20 hearings and 44 witness testimonies.

New trial

A new three-judge panel in San Isidro – composed of Alberto Ortolani, Pablo Rolón and Alberto Gaig – was appointed last July to conduct a fresh trial.

The new trial, which will hear from some 120 witnesses, will again seek to determine if Maradona's medical team is responsible for his death.

Maradona's daughters, Dalma, Gianinna, and Jana, as well as his former partner Verónica Ojeda, were present in the packed courtroom in the northern Buenos Aires suburb of San Isidro for the opening of the proceedings.

Seven of Maradona’s caregivers face prison terms of between eight and 25 years if convicted of homicide with possible malice aforethought (dolo eventual) – pursuing a course of action despite knowing it could lead to death.

The defendants are neurosurgeon and family doctor Leopoldo Luciano Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, psychologist Carlos Ángel Díaz, medical coordinator Nancy Forlini, nursing coordinator Mariano Perroni, clinician Pedro Pablo Di Spagna, and nurse Ricardo Omar Almirón.

An eighth defendant, nurse Gisela Madrid, will be tried separately before a popular jury in Oral Criminal Court (TOC) No. 3.

"Diego Maradona began to die 12 hours before his actual death; anyone who had thought to transfer him to a clinic in a car or ambulance during his final week would have saved his life," prosecutor Patricio Ferrari claimed on Tuesday as proceedings got underway.

He branded the medical team "a group of amateurs" who committed "all manner of omissions" during a "cruel, harsh, utterly inadequate hospitalisation.”

In his opening statement, lawyer Fernando Burlando – representing Dalma and Gianinna Maradona – held up a stethoscope: “This small instrument, which is so important in medicine, was never placed on Maradona’s chest between the 11th and the 25th [of November]; his heart was never listened to,” he said.

Burlando declared before the court “Diego Armando Maradona was murdered,” accusing the medical team of “apathy, indifference and omissions.”

“What these people did was reckless. I can’t find the words to describe what happened to Diego. A diabolical environment was created,” he said.

Pablo Jurado, a lawyer representing Maradona’s sisters, said the star’s passing was "the chronicle of a death foretold" and demanded a guilty verdict be handed down.

The defence maintains that Maradona, who battled cocaine and alcohol addictions for decades, died of natural causes. 

"If there's one thing that has been ruled out, it's a malicious criminal plan to kill Maradona," Vadim Mischanchuk, a lawyer for Agustina Cosachov, told Radio Con Vos at the weekend. 

“Anyone who continues to maintain that is being cruel to the family and to the accused,” added Mischanchuk.

Proceedings

The court has not specified how long proceedings will last, though it is expected to run until at least July. 

Hearings will take place twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The passing of Maradona, the captain and star of Argentina's 1986 World Cup win, plunged the nation into mourning in the midst 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 at the Casa Rosada presidential palace.

Prior to the opening of proceedings on Tuesday, around 50 Maradona fans gathered outside the courthouse to demand justice for their fallen idol.

“We’re all wondering why they didn’t look after him,” said 34-year-old Francisco Tesch, who was wearing a T-shirt bearing his hero’s face.

– TIMES/AFP/PERFIL/NA