"We hope the court will rise to the occasion." That's how Mario Baudry, lawyer for Maradona's youngest son Diego Fernando, opened the new chapter of a case that Argentina has been waiting years to resolve. The retrial of seven members of Diego Maradona's medical team began Tuesday, April 14, in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires — nearly four and a half years after the football legend died at 60 from a heart attack on November 25, 2020.
The previous trial lasted three months before collapsing entirely. Judge Julieta Makintach was removed following misconduct allegations, rendering the whole process a mistrial. Now it starts from scratch.
Who is being tried — and what they're accused of
Three names sit at the centre of this case: neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, medical psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, and psychologist Carlos Diaz. They're joined by four other members of Maradona's medical board, all charged with negligent homicide in connection with his death. Maradona had been recovering from brain surgery to remove a blood clot when he suffered the fatal cardiac arrest.
The negligence charges stem from a 2021 investigation in which a prosecutor-appointed medical board concluded his care had been "inappropriate, deficient and reckless." All seven defendants have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, they face up to 25 years in prison.
The court will hear testimony from just under 100 witnesses before any verdict is reached. Given the first trial's abrupt end, there's no guarantee this one runs smoothly either — but for a country that treats Maradona as something closer to a national symbol than a footballer, the pressure to reach a conclusion is immense.
Baudry put it plainly: "What Diego represented for Argentinians and for the world of football." The weight of that is exactly what makes this trial so hard to separate from emotion — and so difficult to conduct cleanly.
