Prosecutors have claimed football legend Diego Maradona was 'murdered' and died in a 'theatre of horror' as a trial began in Argentina of the medical team responsible for his care.
Maradona died at the age of 60 in November 2020 following a heart attack, just two weeks after he was released from hospital following surgery for a bleed on his brain.
His family alleged negligence, a cover-up, and derogatory comments from the medical team who oversaw his care - calling it a 'mafia'.
Maradona had struggled with drug addiction, obesity and alcoholism for decades, and reportedly came close to death in 2000 and 2004.
But prosecutors suspect that - were it not for the negligence of his doctors - his death could have been avoided.
A trial of seven members of his medical team began on Tuesday in Buenos Aires, with a eighth facing a trial by jury in July.
Prosecutor Patricio Ferrari showed an image of Maradona at the time of his death to the court on the first day of the trial, which showed the football legend with his abdomen completely swollen.
Ferrari told the court as cited by Sports Central: ‘Look, this is how Maradona died, as reported by Argentine newspaper Ole. ‘Whoever tells you, the judges, that they did not notice what was happening to Diego is lying to your face.’
Ferrari added outside the court: ‘The whole gang was only interested in completing records and forms to prove they had done what they weren't doing. ‘The medical team treating him, as well as those responsible for this failed and reckless hospitalisation, must be held jointly responsible for the death of Diego Maradona.’
Maradona had died at his home two weeks after undergoing brain surgery, with the speed of his discharge from hospital having been questioned.
Fernando Burlando, a lawyer representing Maradona's daughters, declared that the football legend had been 'murdered' and claimed the football legend would have survived had he remained in hospital.
Burlando said: 'It was a reckless, deficient, unprecedented home hospitalisation. 'There was no type of control in that home, no type of protocol in a theater of horror that was that house where Diego Armando Maradona died, where nobody did what they had to do.'
A model of the house Maradona died in was shown to the court.
Seven of the eight medical professionals who have been charged in the case, including Maradona's brain surgeon, psychiatrist and nurses, are now standing trial for culpable homicide, a crime which roughly equates to involuntary manslaughter.
They deny wrongdoing but could face up to 25 years in prison.
Leopoldo Luque, who served as Maradona's personal doctor for years, performed the surgery that removed his brain blood clot on Nov. 3, 2020.
Luque oversaw Maradona's hospital-to-home transition after the surgery. The swift discharge raised questions at the time, with some experts suggesting that Maradona should have stayed longer in the hospital after his operation.
A lawyer defending Luque claimed the footballer had insisted on being released from hospital.
The lawyer stated: 'The death occurred unexpectedly, suddenly, during sleeping hours, without offering us any time.
Luque's lawyer said Maradona had died following an 'unforeseeable' cardiac event.
Psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov is also among the medical team on trial, after prescribing Maradona's medications.
There was no alcohol or illegal drugs detected in the toxicology test performed after Maradona's death. But the report said Maradona had psychotropic drugs for anxiety and depression in his system when he died.
A lawyer representing Cosachov said 'new evidence proves that there is no criminal responsibility' for Maradona's death.
The five other defendants include: Carlos Diaz, an addiction specialist who had overseen Maradona's treatment for alcohol dependency; Nancy Forlini, a doctor who had helped manage Maradona's home care; Mariano Perroni, a nursing coordinator; Ricardo Almiron, another nurse who tended to the former athlete and Pedro Pablo Di Spagna, a clinical physician.
A third nurse, Gisela Dahiana Madrid, has asked to be tried separately by jury at a later date.
More than 100 witness testimonies are expected to be presented to the court, with the case expected to last for around three to four months.
Members of Maradona's family, including his ex-wife Veronica Ojeda, were present in court for the start of the trial.
The prosecutor's office had assembled a medical board made up of a dozen experts - including forensic doctors, cardiologists, psychiatrists and toxicologists - to see if there was evidence of Maradona's medics committing culpable homicide.
In an explosive 2021 report, the board accused the former football star's medical team of acting in an 'inappropriate, deficient and reckless manner.'
The experts also questioned why Maradona had been released so soon from the hospital after his operation when he was unable to care for himself and had limited or no access to critical medical devices, like an oxygen tube and a defibrillator, which administers an electric shock to restore heart rhythm.
Last year, a medical report by medical examiner Pablo Ferrari claimed Maradona's rapid and erratic heartbeat was either of natural origin or stemmed from an 'external' factor, possibly a drug like cocaine.
Maradona had battled alcohol and drug addiction for many years and had undergone brain surgery in November 2020.
Maradona won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986, having knocked England out in the quarter final with the infamous 'Hand of God' goal and another - later voted 'Goal of the Century.'
Renowned for his breathtaking playing ability, Maradona's wild life off the pitch was equally notorious; running around with the mafia in Naples, serial womanising and a lethal dependency on alcohol and cocaine.
Argentina went into three days of mourning in which his body was lying in state at the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace in Buenos Aires.
.
