Diego Maradona's personal physician, one of seven people facing a new this week trial over the 2020 death of the national icon, said Thursday he was innocent of any wrongdoing in relation to his "idol."
"I want to say that I am innocent and that I deeply regret his death," neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque said of Maradona's death at age 60.
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.
"I adored him, he was my idol and my friend," Luque told the court, his voice breaking with emotion.
Luque, 44, is on trial with six other medical professionals accused of gross negligence in Maradona's final days, leading to his death.
Maradona, arguably Argentina’s most favourite son and a truly larger-than-life footballer blessed with incredible skills, died of heart failure, acute pulmonary edema – a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs – and dilated cardiomyopathy, two weeks after going under the knife.
He died at a rented 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.
The first trial over his death was sensationally annulled last year, following revelations that one of the judges was taking part in a clandestine documentary about the case.
Video footage and images, including a trailer for the proposed documentary – tentatively titled Justicia Divina (“Divine Justice”) – were later leaked to the press. The judge in question, Julieta 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.
Makintach was later impeached.
The new trial in the northern Buenos Aires suburb of San Isidro, near where Maradona died, began Tuesday with a new three-judge panel, composed of Alberto Ortolani, Pablo Rolón and Alberto Gaig.
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 all present in the packed courtroom in the northern Buenos Aires suburb of San Isidro for the opening of the proceedings.
‘Bunch of amateurs’
Prosecutor Patricio Ferrari accused Maradona's medical team at the start of the proceedings of being a "bunch of amateurs" who committed "all kinds of omissions" in caring for him.
He slammed the "cruel, harsh, utterly inadequate hospitalisation” faced by the late footballer.
The defendants argue that the notoriously hard-living Maradona died of natural causes.
Each professional in the dock has minimised his or her role in the decisions taken about his care.
Maradona’s seven care-givers 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 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.
Maradona was found dead in bed by a day nurse. Forensic experts said he was likely in agony for 12 hours before he died.
"I am completely sure that didn't happen," Luque said, questioning several aspects of the autopsy performed on Maradona’s corpse.
Luque said he was devoted to his patient. "He would call me at any hour and I would go," he said.
One of the questions at the heart of the trial is whether the decision to allow Maradona to convalesce at home instead of a medical facility endangered his life.
The prosecution on Thursday played a series of WhatsApp audio messages between Luque and Maximiliano Pomargo, who served as Maradona's private secretary.
The messages suggested that Luque manipulated Maradona's daughters in order to win their backing for the 1986 World Cup star to be cared for at the home in Tigre.
'Apathy, indifference'
In his opening statement on Tuesday, lawyer Fernando Burlando – representing Dalma and Gianinna Maradona, two of the late star’s children – 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 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
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