Judge steps down in Diego Maradona homicide trial after documentary controversy, leaving case in limbo

Australia Broadcast Center

28-05-2025

Football legend Diego Maradona was allowed to order unhealthy food including hamburgers during recovery from brain surgery, an Argentinian court has heard.
His medical team is on trial for alleged homicide by negligence in Buenos Aires and are facing up to 25 years behind bars.
However, the future of the trial is now in doubt after one of the three presiding judges stepped down from the case this week amid accusations of ethical breaches.
Aged 60, Maradona was under the care of seven medical professionals when he went into cardiac arrest at a house outside Buenos Aires on November 25, 2020.
A worker at the private house in which Maradona died in has told the court "it was embarrassing what happened there."
Prosecutors allege that his death could have been avoided and brought forward the case in 2022, however the defendants say Maradona refused treatment and declined to stay in hospital as he was advised.
Maradona fans have protested outside the courthouse since before the trial, with signs reading "Justice for God."
The question now is, will the trial continue and will there be answers for the many that loved and idolised Diego Armando Maradona?
Judge Julieta Makintach stood down from the case after video surfaced showing her apparently being interviewed by a camera crew as part of a documentary in the corridors of the Buenos Aires courthouse and in her office.
The trial was suspended last week after the judge was accused of being impartial and authorising a documentary about the hearings.
Court rules forbid such interviews involving a judge mid-trial. Initially, Ms Makintach denied any wrongdoing.
Prosecutor Patricio Ferrari made the first request for a pause in the trial and said the situation "compromises the prestige of the judiciary."
The attorneys representing Maradona's family had joined the prosecutor's request for a suspension.
The footballing icon's primary physician at the time of his death was Leopoldo Luque, who is now one of the main defendants in the trial.
Julio Rivas, the lawyer representing Leopoldo Luque had requested Ms Makintach's removal from the trial, arguing that the judge had demonstrated a lack of impartiality in the proceedings.
He said he was contacted by the BBC asking for an interview because they were making a documentary about the trial.
He added that he had received information that the production company involved in the documentary was associated with Juan Makintach, the judge's brother.
Police said they saw a camera in the courtroom, and a courtroom official said its presence was approved by Ms Makintach.
Fernando Burlando, a lawyer for Maradona's eldest daughters, Dalma and Gianinna, told reporters on Tuesday that "this is a judicial tragedy."
He said the trial will be unable to resume until a new judge is appointed to join the case's remaining two.
The court has said it has begun the process of finding a new judge, however when that could happen remains unclear.
The trial of seven healthcare professionals accused of negligence in the 2020 death of the football superstar began on March 11.
The defendants in the case are a neurosurgeon, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a medical coordinator, a nursing coordinator, a doctor and the night nurse.
The case spans the period after Maradona had surgery for a haematoma that formed between his skull and brain and stayed in intensive care at Los Olivos clinic om November 2020.
He then was sent to recover at a private home, where he died two weeks later from heart failure at the age of 60.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors have described the care given to Maradona as reckless and unprecedented.
Psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, who is also on trial has testified that she does not regret the treatment she provided saying "I acted convinced that what I was doing was best for the patient."
Maradona's former partner Veronica Ojeda has attended the trial frequently and is one of the 100 plus witnesses who has taken the stand.
Outside the courthouse, Ms Ojeda shouted "murderer, come and face us" to Ms Cosachov.
All defendants have denied the charges of "simple homicide with eventual intent" in Maradona's treatment.
An eighth member of the medical team faces a separate trial by jury in July.
The court has heard over the course of the trial so far that Maradona was allowed to order hamburgers, drink alcohol and remove all his IVs whilst he stayed at the private home post surgery.
Fernando Villarejo, who worked at the Olivos Clinic on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, told the court he felt like a pawn between the "king and the queen," referring to neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, as they determined Maradona's post-surgery care in November 2020.
Mr Luque acted as Maradona's personal physician in the remaining four years of his life and Ms Cosachov prescribed medication that the 60-year-old took until his death.
"Anything was allowed inside the room," Mr Villarejo testified.
The court also heard the Argentine soccer star requested alcohol during the post-operative period and was difficult to deal with, which made his subsequent recovery in home care inadvisable.
Pablo Dimitroff, medical director of the Olivos Clinic, said that Mr Luque requested "a place" so the former player could undergo surgery in early November 2020.
Maradona had "a complex psychomotor excitation episode" that resembled alcohol withdrawal, and Mr Dimitroff added he was consistently asking for alcohol.
"We were dealing with an aggressive patient who tore out his own IVs; he was a very difficult patient to take home," he said.
He told the court that he advised Maradona's medical team that he should "stay still" and not move to the private home.
However, according to Mr Dimitroff, both Mr Luque and Ms Cosachov requested sedation for Maradona to "try to detoxify" him from his drinking habits and because he was an unmanageable patient.
Maradona's family allegedly agreed to the sedation "out of ignorance or because they trusted (his father's people)," the court heard.
One of Maradona's daughters testified that her father's primary care physician couldn't explain to her what type of treatment the former player was receiving.
She also blamed the doctor, Mr Luque, for recommending that her father be moved to a private home following surgery where he ultimately died.
Gianinna Maradona explained that she felt her father's health was badly deteriorating in the weeks prior to his death and she said she made that clear to Mr Luque.
"I told Luque that my dad seemed very lost, that he wasn't happy, and that he couldn't walk. He told me there were ups and downs in his days," she said.
She stated that every time she asked the medical team and the doctor what was happening, "he couldn't tell me with certainty what treatment he was undergoing."
When asked why she agreed with Mr Luque, Ms Cosachov and the other defendants to move Maradona to home confinement, she said she trusted them but in hindsight it was the wrong decision.
"I chose to believe that they, who were monitoring my father's health, were giving us the best proposal," she said.
ABC/Wires