\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t The trial over the death of Argentine football superstar Diego Maradona, who perished from an acute pulmonary edema in 2020, is set to start once again on Tuesday. This will be the second time the proceeding goes ahead, after the first court case was declared a mistrial in May 2025.<\/p>\n
The trial centers around the circumstances of his death and the attention he received from his doctors and nurses, following the findings of a medical board that determined they had failed to administer proper medical care to their patient.<\/p>\n
Hearings will be conducted by judges Alberto Ortolani, Alberto Gaig and Pablo Rol\u00f3n, who will receive testimonies from a reduced number of witnesses, dropping from the over 200 listed for the original trial to around 100. Those who gave their testimonies in the first trial will have to do so again.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, we are working to ensure a prompt, fair, and effective trial,\u201d said Patricio Ferrari, one of the three prosecutors in charge of the case, to the Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want a trial characterized by the consistent presentation of high-quality evidence based on nearly a hundred testimonies and substantial evidence of various kinds, obtained by this very prosecution team through a range of investigative techniques. Within this framework, our goal is to prevent impunity for those responsible for the death of Diego Maradona.\u201d<\/p>\n
What happened to Diego Maradona? Maradona was found unconscious around midday on November 25, 2020, at his home in the San Andr\u00e9s gated community in Tigre, Buenos Aires Province, and was pronounced dead two hours later.<\/p>\n
Immediately after his death, family members questioned the circumstances surrounding his demise, as well as the care he was given in the years prior by those in charge of his well-being.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The medical board that examined Maradona\u2019s case found the treatment he received was \u201cinappropriate, inadequate, and reckless.\u201d The board claimed he \u201cshowed unmistakable signs of prolonged agony\u201d and \u201cwas left to fend for himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
On April 18, 2023, the San Isidro Criminal Chamber of Appeals and Guarantees elevated the case to a trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eight people stand accused of failing to administer proper medical care to Maradona, chiefly Maradona\u2019s main medical advisor, Leopoldo Luque, as well as his psychiatrist, Agustina Cosachov, and psychologist, Carlos D\u00edaz.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They, along with medical care coordinators Nancy Forlini and Mariano Perroni, designated doctor Pedro Di Spagna, and nurses Ricardo Almir\u00f3n and Dahiana Madrid, were charged with involuntary manslaughter.<\/p>\n
In October 2024, Madrid was granted a trial by jury, rather than Argentina\u2019s established proceedings led by a judge, and faces a separate trial before magistrate Mar\u00eda Coelho.<\/p>\n
What happened with the first trial? The original court case started over a year ago, in March 2025, after being pushed back nine months from its original date.<\/p>\n
In the trial\u2019s opening hearing, Ferrari showed a striking image of the former football player in his bed at the time of his death, with signs of swelling and severe physical deterioration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is how Maradona died,\u201d he said, showing the shocking picture of the star, which led his daughters, present in court, to cry.<\/p>\n
The case centered around the former footballer\u2019s health. Witnesses testified that his condition had been deteriorating \u201cfor at least ten days\u201d prior to his death, painting a picture of a Maradona who looked lost in his final days.<\/p>\n
Others criticized the state of the home-care installations set up in the house he had just moved into during the COVID lockdown.<\/p>\n
Maradona\u2019s eldest daughter Dalma said she couldn\u2019t recognize her father in the days leading up to the star\u2019s death. She testified that he \u201cwouldn\u2019t laugh\u201d and seemed unable to \u201cunderstand who was on the other side\u201d during video calls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her younger sister Giannina echoed the sentiment, recalling an instance when the star told her \u201cnobody had joined him\u201d for his 60th birthday, and she had to remind him it wasn\u2019t for another 20 days.<\/p>\n
Cosachov, the only one of the accused to give her version of events, rebutted accusations that Maradona\u2019s medical team was responsible for deciding to put him in home care, three weeks after he had surgery to remove a subdural hematoma, on November 3.<\/p>\n
However, the trial was declared null and void by judges Maximiliano Savarino and Ver\u00f3nica Di Tommaso after evidence surfaced that the third judge, Julieta Mackintach, had allowed the illegal entry of cameras into the court to film an unauthorized documentary of the proceedings, which would focus on her.<\/p>\n
The judges said she had taken part in \u201cmultiple discussions with witnesses and lawyers\u201d during breaks in the daily proceedings, \u201cto the detriment of all parties, thereby rendering the proceedings null and void.\u201d<\/p>\n
In November 2025, a Buenos Aires Province judicial board removed Judge Makintach from her post and banned her from serving in the Argentine judiciary for life.<\/p>\n
A new set of judges was chosen via random draw in June 2025, landing with the San Isidro 7th Criminal Court, headed by Roberto Gaig, Alejandro Lago, and Mar\u00eda Coehlo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coelho stepped down immediately due to her involvement in Madrid\u2019s case and was replaced by Ortolani. Lago would also excuse himself a month later, claiming he suffered from a series of conditions that rendered him unable to face the \u201cintensity and emotional burden of the trial,\u201d with Rol\u00f3n selected very soon after.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The trial over the death of Argentine football superstar Diego Maradona, who perished from an acute pulmonary edema in 2020, is set to start once again on Tuesday. This will be the second time the proceeding goes ahead, after the first court case was declared a mistrial in May 2025. The trial centers around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":50783,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[960,1866,3157,67],"tags":[1865,1863,3155,1369],"class_list":["post-50782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-diego-maradona","category-maradona","category-maradona-trial","category-sports","tag-diego-maradona","tag-maradona","tag-maradona-trial","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}