\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t A tense hearing on Tuesday put the trial over the death of Argentine football icon Diego Maradona at risk of yet another setback, as prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed that evidence presented by one of the witnesses should be excluded to avoid the possibility of a new mistrial.<\/p>\n
The dispute centered on the testimony and evidence submitted by medical examiner Mariana Flichman, who prepared Maradona\u2019s discharge paperwork from the Olivos Clinic.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Patricio Ferrari told the judge he and his team were \u201cpreviously unaware\u201d that Flichman had written the document.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It also emerged that Flichman had served both as a \u201cpatient risk and claims manager\u201d at Swiss Medical, Maradona\u2019s healthcare provider, and as an expert witness for defendant Nancy Forlini, a coordinator at the medical services company, during the medical board proceedings that determined the cause of Maradona\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Ferrari asked the court to exclude Flichman\u2019s report from the case file, arguing that the newly disclosed details of her employment relationship with the healthcare provider called her impartiality into question and could have biased her findings.<\/p>\n
He added that, had those ties been known earlier in the investigation, Flichman herself \u201ccould have been charged in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several defense attorneys backed Ferrari\u2019s request, including Vadim Mischanchuk, who represents psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov. Mischanchuk described the revelations surrounding Flichman as \u201ca warning sign of a possible mistrial.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judges decided to postpone the decision until \u201ca later time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The original trial into Maradona\u2019s death was declared null and void after it emerged that Judge Julieta Makintach had authorized cameras to enter the courtroom to film an unauthorized documentary about the proceedings.<\/p>\n
Luque \u2018broke down\u2019 during Maradona surgery Tuesday\u2019s key witness was neurosurgeon Rodolfo Benvenutti, who oversaw Maradona\u2019s surgery at the request of the late football star\u2019s friend and lawyer, V\u00edctor Stinfale.<\/p>\n
Benvenutti testified that when he first contacted Leopoldo Luque, Maradona\u2019s chief medical advisor, Luque told him he intended to perform the operation himself, describing it as \u201cthe biggest opportunity of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him he wasn\u2019t in the right frame of mind to perform the surgery. It was clear he was affected by the situation. Stinfale later spoke with him, and he understood,\u201d Benvenutti said.<\/p>\n
The neurosurgeon went on to testify that Luque broke down during the operation, saying he appeared \u201cdeeply affected by the situation\u201d and that \u201cthe stress got the better of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benvenutti also testified that he had recommended placing Maradona under strict medical supervision following the surgery, including round-the-clock nursing care and regular medical checkups.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf all the necessary resources weren\u2019t in place at the house, the intervention should not have gone ahead,\u201d he said. \u201cIf those resources aren\u2019t there, the intervention is incomplete,\u201d he said, referring to the home care recovery setup Maradona was put under after the surgery, where he died just 22 days later, which has been greatly criticized for lacking the necessary equipment and personnel.<\/p>\n
Cover picture: Maradona at Boca Juniors Stadium (Credit: Agust\u00edn Marcarian\/Reuters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A tense hearing on Tuesday put the trial over the death of Argentine football icon Diego Maradona at risk of yet another setback, as prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed that evidence presented by one of the witnesses should be excluded to avoid the possibility of a new mistrial. The dispute centered on the testimony and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":71396,"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-71395","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\/71395","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=71395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}