Argentina starts trial over death of football icon Diego Maradona

Argentina began a long-awaited trial of the medical team for football legend Diego Maradona, more than four years after his death in 2020, in a case that has riled emotions in the South American country where the World Cup winner is still revered.

Maradona's family, lawyers and his former nurses, brain surgeon and psychiatrist accused of negligent homicide arrived at the court on the outskirts of capital city Buenos Aires on Tuesday, in what promises to be a drama-filled and lengthy saga.

Outside the San Isidro appeals court, fans held up placards with the message "Justice for D10S," using a nickname based on Maradona's shirt number and the Spanish word for God (in reference to his famous "Hand of God" goal in the 1986 World Cup).

Maradona, immortalized in Argentina in huge murals and tattoos, is considered one of the greatest football players in history.

Seven members of the medical team are due in court in a trial expected to last several months. An eighth member faces a trial by jury in July.

Maradona died at home in November 2020 from heart failure at age 60, while recovering from surgery to remove a blood clot several days earlier. His medical team rejects the charges of "simple homicide with eventual intent" in the treatment of the former Boca Juniors and Napoli striker.

Prosecutors read out the indictment to a packed courtroom that included Maradona's ex-wife and several of his children, where they described the conditions of care received by the late star as "calamitous, reckless, deficient, unprecedented."

They alleged that protocols were broken by medical professionals, and that the home where Maradona was recovering from surgery was described as a "theater of horror" where nobody did what was required.

The defense lawyer for neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque said that home hospitalization was agreed between doctors and Maradona's relatives. There was no wrongdoing because Maradona died from an "unforeseeable" cardiac event, lawyer Mara Digiuni added.

"New evidence proves that there is no criminal responsibility for Maradona's death on the part of any of the accused," a lawyer for psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov told reporters on entering the court.

If convicted, those accused could face prison sentences of between eight and 25 years.