The trial of the medical team that treated the late Argentine football legend Diego Armando Maradona has been postponed to October 1, after it was originally scheduled to begin next week. Maradona, an "icon" of the sport, died on November 25, 2020, at the age of 60 while recovering from brain surgery due to a clot, following decades of battles with cocaine and alcohol addiction. The "Golden Boy," who led his country to victory in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, was found dead in bed two weeks after undergoing surgery, at a rented house in a neighborhood of Buenos Aires, where he was recuperating after leaving the hospital. It was determined that he died of a heart attack.
In April last year, an Argentine appeals court confirmed that neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agostina Cosachov, and six others, including nurses, would stand trial in this case for medical negligence that led to Maradona's death. Prosecutors accused the eight doctors of providing "reckless" and "inadequate" home treatment for Maradona. A panel of 20 medical experts formed by the Argentine prosecutor in 2021 concluded that Maradona "could have had a better chance of surviving" with appropriate treatment in a suitable medical facility.
The defendants had contested their referral to trial or the retention of the charge, claiming involuntary manslaughter. However, the court upheld the description of "eventual intentional homicide," which refers to the crime committed by someone acting with negligence while being aware that it could lead to death, punishable by imprisonment for 8 to 25 years.
On Wednesday, the appeals chamber of the San Isidro court in Buenos Aires province decided to "suspend the session scheduled for June 4 and reschedule it for October 1." The court justified its decision by citing "a series of issues raised by various parties that still need to be resolved before the hearings begin." Given the nature of the arguments presented and the time required, the lawyer for Maradona's daughters, Dalma and Giannina, also requested a postponement of the trial, which the court approved.
Additionally, the court, in the same ruling, decided not to approve "at this time" the request by his daughters and girlfriend to transfer Maradona's remains from a private cemetery in Bella Vista to a mausoleum in the suburbs of the capital near the central area of Puerto Madero, where "the Argentine people and citizens of the world can honor the greatest idol of Argentina." The judge justified his temporary decision by citing "potential procedures that may be required" in the context of the trial.
