The China Mail - Maradona medical team on trial for 'horror theater' of his death

Maradona died on November 25, 2020, aged 60, while recovering at home from brain surgery for a blood clot, after decades battling cocaine and alcohol addictions.

On trial are a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a medical coordinator, a nursing coordinator, a doctor and a night nurse accused of being criminally negligent in the care they provided to the footballer in his final days.

They risk prison terms of between eight and 25 years if convicted on the charge of "homicide with possible intent." They are alleged to have been aware that their actions, or failure to act, could have caused Maradona's death.

Outside the court, dozens of fans gathered Tuesday, waving banners calling for "justice" and singing songs honoring the fallen star.

"Thank you all for coming," Veronica Ojeda, Maradona's former partner and mother of one of his sons, 12-year-old Dieguito, told the crowd as she fought back tears.

Maradona's older daughters, Dalma and Gianinna, entered the building without saying anything to the press or supporters.

In an opening statement, the prosecution said it intended to submit "solid" evidence that no member of the medical team "did what they were supposed to do" in the "horror theater" that was Maradona's deathbed.

"That's how Maradona died," prosecutor Patricio Ferrari exclaimed in the courtroom, holding up a posthumous photo of Maradona, lying on his back in bed, his body grotesquely swollen.

"They condemned him to oblivion... and deliberately and cruelly decided that he will die."

- 'Totally deficient' -

Maradona was found dead two weeks after going under the knife, in a rented house in an exclusive Buenos Aires neighborhood where he was brought after being discharged from hospital.

He was found to have died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema, a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs.

The passing of the star of the 1986 World Cup plunged Argentina into mourning in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tens of thousands of people queued to bid farewell to the former Boca Juniors and Napoli striker as his body lay in state at the presidential palace.

Nearly 120 witnesses, including members of Maradona's family and doctors who tended to him over the years, are expected to take the stand in the long-delayed trial in the Buenos Aires suburb of San Isidro.

The hearings are expected to run until July.

A day nurse who found Maradona dead is to be tried separately, by jury.

Prosecutors accuse his medical team of pushing for Maradona to receive home care, which proved "reckless" and "totally deficient."

They allege the footballer was abandoned to his fate for a "prolonged, agonizing period" before his death.

- 'Justice for Diego' -

A panel of 20 medical experts convened by Argentina's public prosecutor concluded in 2021 that Maradona "would have had a better chance of survival" with adequate treatment in an appropriate medical facility.

The house where he was being cared for notably had no defibrillator.

Maradona's family also claim that leaked audio and text messages between members of the medical team show the star's health was in imminent danger.

Mario Baudry, a lawyer for the family, said the messages revealed the carers' strategy was to ensure Maradona's daughters did not intervene "because if they did, they (the medical staff) would lose their money."

The accused all insist on their innocence.

"All society needs to know... what really happened, who abandoned him... and whoever is responsible must pay the price," pensioner Hilda Pereira told AFP in Buenos Aires's La Paternal neighborhood where the player nicknamed "El Pibe de Oro" (The Golden Boy) revealed his prodigious talent as a player for Argentinos Juniors in the 1970s.

Maradona, she said with a quavering voice, "did not deserve to die as he died, alone."

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