After 2 months 40 witnesses Diego Maradona trial scrapped

SAN ISIDRO – After weeks of hearings and testimony from over 40 witnesses, an Argentinian court on May 29 nullified the trial of late football legend Diego Maradona’s medical team due to a scandal over a TV miniseries.

A new trial will have to start from scratch, with three new judges, in a case already long delayed into Maradona’s death in 2020, allegedly due to medical negligence.

Judge Julieta Makintach was forced to step down from the case this week after it emerged she had been involved in a documentary miniseries about the case, potentially breaking a string of ethics rules.

Her colleague, Judge Maximiliano Savarino, annulled the trial, saying Makintach’s behaviour had “caused prejudice” to proceedings that have already heard hours of painful, sometimes tearful, testimony from witnesses including Maradona’s children.

“I am not calm. I am angry. I hate them!” the footballer’s daughter Jana Maradona said outside the court.

Maradona’s ex-partner Veronica Ojeda described the events as “outrageous”. But she added: “If I have to do it (testify) a thousand times more, I will.”

Maradona died in November 2020 at the age of 60 while recovering from brain surgery.

He was found to have died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema – a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs – two weeks after going under the knife.

His seven-person medical team is on trial over the conditions of his home convalescence, described by prosecutors as grossly negligent.

In a trial that kicked off on March 11, prosecutors alleged the former footballer was abandoned to his fate for a “prolonged, agonising period” before his death.

Daughter Gianinna Maradona told the court her father was kept in a “dark, ugly and lonely” place, and that his carers were more interested in money than his welfare.

Then the proceedings