A retrial into the death of Diego Maradona began on Tuesday in Argentina, reopening one of the country’s most closely watched court cases more than four years after the football great died at home in Tigre, Buenos Aires province. Seven people have been charged with negligent homicide, and they deny the allegations.
Maradona died aged 60 after suffering heart failure while he was recuperating from surgery to remove a brain blood clot. If convicted, the accused face between eight and 25 years in prison. The first trial collapsed last May after one of the three judges resigned over allegations that unauthorized filming had been allowed in court for a documentary.
The new proceeding is being heard before a different panel of judges in San Isidro, where around 100 people are expected to testify before the trial runs until July. The defendants include Maradona’s former doctor, Leopoldo Luque, and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, while Dahiana Gisela Madrid will face a separate trial. Maradona’s daughters are among those expected to take the stand.
Investigators classified the case as culpable homicide, a charge similar to involuntary manslaughter, after saying those responsible knew how serious Maradona’s condition was but did not take the measures needed to save him. A panel of medical experts said the treatment he received at home was deficient and reckless, and that he would have had a better chance of survival with proper care in an appropriate medical facility.
The trial carries the weight of a life that still dominates Argentine memory. Maradona started at Argentinos Juniors, scored 34 goals for Argentina across four World Cups, and produced the “Hand of God” goal against England in 1986. He was banned for 15 months after testing positive for cocaine in 1991, retired from professional football in 1997 on his 37th birthday during a second stint at Boca Juniors, and later coached Argentina from 2008 until after the 2010 World Cup before managing clubs in the United Arab Emirates and Mexico. He was in charge of Gimnasia y Esgrima when he died on 25 November 2020, a date that prompted three days of national mourning.
The case now turns on the conduct of the people around him in his final days, not the mythology that followed him through football. Alberto Fernandez captured the scale of that loss when he wrote, “Thank you for having existed, Diego. We're going to miss you all our lives,” a line that still hangs over a trial likely to decide whether his final care was a tragedy or a crime.
