Maradona’s care team faces trial in Argentina

Four years after the death of Argentine football legend Diego Maradona, seven healthcare professionals will go on trial this week accused of negligence during his final days.

More than 100 witnesses, including Maradona's family members and doctors who treated him over the years, will take the stand during the four-month trial, which begins on Tuesday in the Buenos Aires suburb of San Isidro, CE Report quotes Kosova Press.

All seven defendants face eight to 25 years in prison if convicted. Diego Armando Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at the age of 60 while recovering from brain surgery, after decades of battling cocaine and alcohol addiction.

He was found dead in bed in a rented house in a Buenos Aires neighborhood where he was brought after being released from the hospital two weeks after surgery. He was found to have died of a heart attack.

Maradona's death, which came in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, plunged Argentina into deep mourning.

Neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, psychologist Carlos Diaz, medical coordinator Nancy Forlini, nursing coordinator Mariano Perroni, doctor Pedro Pablo Di Spagna and nurse Ricardo Almiro will go on trial next week.

Prosecutors have accused medical professionals of providing "reckless" and "deficient" treatment at home for Maradona, claiming he was abandoned and left to his own devices for a "prolonged and torturous period" before his death.