Prosecutors call for Maradona medical staff to face trial

BUENOS AIRES – Prosecutors investigating the 2020 death of Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona have asked that the medical staff who treated him be tried for negligent homicide.

In their request Wednesday (Thursday, Manila time), the prosecutors said "omissions" and mismanagement by eight medical professionals in charge of Maradona placed him in a "situation of helplessness" and abandoned him "to his fate" during his home hospitalization, according to the court filing cited by the official Telam news agency. 

Maradona died at age 50 in 2020 while recovering from brain surgery for a blood clot, and after decades of battles with cocaine and alcohol addictions.

Neurosurgeon and family doctor Leopoldo Luque and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov are under investigation over his death as the main people responsible for the health of the former football star.

Six others, including psychologist Carlos Diaz and medical coordinator Nancy Forlini, are also accused.

The prosecution accuses them of "simple homicide with dolus eventualis," an offense in which a person is negligent while knowing their negligence can cause someone's death.

They could face sentences ranging from eight to 25 years in prison.

According to the prosecutors, the defendants "were the protagonists of an unprecedented, totally deficient and reckless hospitalization at home", and allegedly committed a "series of improvisations, mismanagement and shortcomings".

The defense must now present its arguments and may ask for the case to be dismissed.

Maradona is widely considered one of the greatest footballers in history and led Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup.