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A retrial concerning the death of football icon Diego Maradona begins Tuesday, over three years after his passing at age 60 from heart failure. The initial trial in May 2025 was halted when one of the judges was accused of allowing unauthorized filming by a
documentary crew. Maradona's medical team faces charges of failing to provide adequate care, with seven individuals standing trial for homicide with possible intent. All defendants deny the allegations.
If convicted, they face between eight and 25 years in prison.
The football legend had been recovering at his home in Tigre, in Buenos Aires province, after successful surgery on a brain blood clot earlier that month.
Investigators classified the case as culpable homicide, a crime similar to involuntary manslaughter, because they said the accused were aware of the seriousness of Maradona's health condition but did not take the necessary measures to save him. The heart failure caused him to suffer acute pulmonary oedema, when fluid builds up in the lungs, the preliminary autopsy confirmed.
A panel of medical experts, asked by prosecutors to investigate Maradona's medical team, said the treatment he received at his home was "deficient and reckless".
It concluded that the footballer "would have had a better chance of survival" with adequate treatment in an appropriate medical facility.
The seven people on trial include his main medical adviser, Leopoldo Luque, and his psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov. His former nurse, Dahiana Gisela Madrid, will stand in a separate trial.
Around 100 people are set to testify in front of a new set of judges at a court in San Isidro, including Maradona's daughters. The trial is expected to last until July.
When the footballer died on 25 November 2020, then President of Argentina Alberto Fernandez declared three days of national mourning.
