A NEW trial over the death of football legend Diego Maradona began Tuesday in Argentina, 10 months after a scandal involving a judge caused the first trial to collapse.
Maradona, considered one of the world’s greatest players, died in November 2020 at the age of 60 while recovering from surgery for a brain clot.
His seven-strong medical team is accused of gross negligence causing his death over the conditions of his home convalescence.
He died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema — a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs — 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, the proceedings were thrown into flux by revelations involving one of the three judges.
The judge, Julieta Makintach, was discovered to have taken part in a clandestine documentary about the case, which contained unauthorized recordings made inside the courtroom.
The trial was annulled over the scandal.
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 Veronica Ojeda, were present in the packed courtroom in the northern Buenos Aires suburb of San Isidro for the opening of the proceedings.
Defense lawyer Francisco Oneto asked that the entire trial be broadcast live on television, instead of merely the first day and day of the verdict as currently planned.
The accused doctors, psychologists and nurses are accused of homicide with possible intent — pursuing a course of action despite knowing it could lead to death — over the decisions they made regarding Maradona’s care.
They risk prison terms of between eight and 25 years if convicted.
The defense maintains the larger-than-life Argentine, who battled cocaine and alcohol addictions, 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, lawyer for psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, told Radio Con Vos at the weekend.
The trial is expected to last until July at the earliest.
The passing of the star of the 1986 World Cup plunged Argentina 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 presidential palace.