Eight health workers will go to trial for the death of Diego Armando Maradona after being accused of "negligent homicide", Argentine media reported this past Wednesday. The soccer star, one of the most important figures in this sport and who led Argentina to the conquest of the World Cup in 1986, died at the age of 60 in November 2020 due to heart failure after undergoing brain surgery days before. .
A court in San Isidro, a town on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, rejected defense appeals for a lesser charge and upheld a year-old accusation by the Prosecutor for "reckless and inefficient work" in the treatment of former player of Boca Juniors and Napoli.
Likewise, the court unanimously decided to confirm the elevation to trial of the criminal investigation so that the eight defendants in the case - all linked to the health care that Maradona should receive - are tried for the alleged crime of simple homicide committed through eventual intent .
The eight defendants are the neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque; the psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov; the psychologist Carlos Díaz, the doctor who coordinated the home care of the ex-soccer player, Nancy Forlini, the coordinator of the nurses, Mariano Perroni, the nurse Ricardo Omar Almirón, the nurse Dahiana Gisela Madrid and the clinical doctor Pedro Di Spagna.
In this Tuesday's ruling, Judge Carlos Fabián Blanco, one of the members of the court, affirmed that the evidence attached to the case allows us to consider "consolidated" the tax accusation regarding the contribution that each of the eight defendants "would have made in the case with respect to the health of the alleged victim, taking into account the role and functions that they would have evidenced" in Maradona's home hospitalization, "would have been decisive in the fatal outcome".
The process is unlikely to begin until next year and the defendants could face prison terms of between 8 and 25 years.
In its decision this Tuesday, the San Isidro Court of Appeals and Guarantees revoked the trial for the crime of using a false private document regarding the accused Luque and for the crime of ideological falsehood regarding the accused Cosachov.
The 1986 world champion in Mexico suffered from alcohol addiction problems, he had been admitted to a clinic in La Plata on November 2, 2020 for a picture of anemia and dehydration and a day later he was transferred to a sanatorium in the Buenos Aires town of Olivos, where he underwent surgery for a subdural hematoma.
On November 11, 2020, he was discharged from the hospital and moved to a house in a private neighborhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, where he died on the 25th of that same month.
