Maradona's ex-bodyguard arrested for alleged lies in testimony at trial of late star's medical team
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A former bodyguard of the late Diego Maradona was arrested Tuesday for allegedly withholding information and telling lies during his testimony at the trial of the soccer great's medical team.
Seven healthcare professionals are on trial at an Argentine court accused of negligence in Maradona's death in a house outside Buenos Aires on Nov. 25, 2020.
On Tuesday, following a request from the prosecutor's office, the criminal court in the Buenos Aires suburb of San Isidro ordered Julio César Coria to be investigated for false testimony. He was arrested and remained in custody Tuesday afternoon.
Coria was one of the people who attempted to resuscitate Maradona.
According to the prosecution, the accused professionals didn't provide adequate medical care.
Coria testified in court on Tuesday that when he entered Maradona's room, he saw nurse Gisela Madrid and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, both defendants in the case, performing CPR. He added that Cosachov gave Maradona 'mouth-to-mouth resuscitation' for a while.
The trial prosecutor, Patricio Ferrari, warned the witness of contradictions in his statement.
The prosecution warned Coria that he lied when he denied in court having spoken with another of the defendants, neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque.
'There are countless chats between Luque and Coria, which demonstrate a cordial and almost friendly relationship, and the witness denied having had any conversation,' Ferrari said.
Luque, Maradona's personal physician for the last four years of his life, performed surgery to remove a blood clot from the former footballer's brain just weeks before his death.
The 28-year-old daughter of Maradona, Jana, testified Tuesday that Luque and Coria suggested 'home hospitalization' when the clinic authorities recommended that Maradona remain hospitalized.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Sergio Farella, The Associated Press
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hamilton Spectator
16 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
University of Michigan drops private security after reports of surveillance
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — The University of Michigan said it's cutting ties with a private security company that was accused of following pro-Palestinian activists on and off campus. The university said it found the actions of one security company employee 'disturbing, unacceptable and unethical.' It did not elaborate. 'Going forward, we are terminating all contracts with external vendors to provide plainclothes security on campus,' President Domenico Grasso said in a statement Sunday. In a Guardian story last week, students said they were surveilled around Ann Arbor. The news outlet posted video from a member of a Muslim group who decided to confront a man who was watching him from a car last summer. That man in turn yelled and accused him of trying to steal his wallet. Tensions have been high between the university and pro-Palestinian student groups . A student encampment stood for a month on campus last year before authorities shut it down citing safety issues. Seven people were charged with felonies related to the encampment's removal, though charges were dropped in May. The university, which has campus police, said it hired private security about a year ago to report suspicious activity in high-traffic areas, not to perform surveillance. 'No individual or group should ever be targeted for their beliefs or affiliations,' Grasso said. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'Day of the Jackal' author Frederick Forsyth dies at 86
LONDON (AP) — Frederick Forsyth, the British author of 'The Day of the Jackal" and other bestselling thrillers, has died after a brief illness, his literary agent said Monday. He was 86. Jonathan Lloyd, his agent, said Forsyth died at home early Monday surrounded by his family. 'We mourn the passing of one of the world's greatest thriller writers," Lloyd said. Forsyth served as a Royal Air Force pilot before becoming a foreign correspondent and a novelist. In 2015, he told the BBC that he had also worked for the British intelligence agency MI6 for many years, starting from when he covered a civil war in Nigeria in the 1960s. 'The Day of the Jackal,' published in 1971, propelled him into global fame. The political thriller about a professional assassin was made into a film in 1973 and more recently a television series starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch. He wrote more than 25 books including 'The Afghan,' 'The Kill List,' 'The Dogs of War" and 'The Fist of God" that have sold over 75 million copies, Lloyd said. His publisher, Bill Scott-Kerr, said that 'Revenge of Odessa,' a sequel to the 1974 book 'The Odessa File" that Forsyth worked on with fellow thriller author Tony Kent, will be published in August.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Georgia's experience raises red flags for Medicaid work requirement moving through Congress
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's experiment with a work requirement for Medicaid offers a test of a similar mandate Republicans in Congress want to implement nationally, and advocates say the results so far should serve as a warning. Just days shy of its two-year anniversary, the Georgia Medicaid program is providing health coverage to about 7,500 low-income residents, up from 4,300 in the first year, but far fewer than the estimated 240,000 people who could qualify. The state had predicted at least 25,000 enrollees in the first year and nearly 50,000 in the second year. Applicants and beneficiaries have faced technical glitches and found it nearly impossible at times to reach staff for help, despite more than $50 million in federal and state spending on computer software and administration. The program, dubbed Georgia Pathways, had a backlog of more than 16,000 applications 14 months after its July 2023 launch, according to a renewal application Georgia submitted to the Trump administration in April. "The data on the Pathways program speaks for itself,' said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, an advocacy group that has called for a broader expansion of Medicaid without work requirements. 'There are just so many hurdles at every step of the way that it's just a really difficult program for people to enroll in and then to stay enrolled in too.' Georgia's rules A tax and spending bill backed by President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers that passed the U.S. House in May would require many able-bodied Medicaid enrollees under 65 to show that they work, volunteer or go to school. The bill is now in the Senate, where Republicans want significant changes. Pathways requires beneficiaries to perform 80 hours a month of work, volunteer activity, schooling or vocational rehabilitation. It's the only Medicaid program in the nation with a work requirement. But Georgia recently stopped checking each month whether beneficiaries were meeting the mandate. Colbert and other advocates view that as evidence that state staff was overburdened with reviewing proof-of-work documents. Fiona Roberts, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Community Health, said Gov. Brian Kemp has mandated that state agencies 'continually seek ways to make government more efficient and accessible." Georgia's governor defends Pathways The governor's office defended the enrollment numbers. Kemp spokesman Garrison Douglas said the early projections for Pathways were made in 2019, when the state had a much larger pool of uninsured residents who could qualify for the program. In a statement, Douglas credited the Republican governor with bringing that number down significantly through 'historic job growth,' and said the decline in uninsured residents proved 'the governor's plan to address our healthcare needs is working.' For BeShea Terry, Pathways was a 'godsend.' After going without insurance for more than a year, Terry, 51, said Pathways allowed her to get a mammogram and other screening tests. Terry touts Pathways in a video on the program's website. But in a phone interview with The Associated Press, she said she also experienced problems. Numerous times, she received erroneous messages that she hadn't uploaded proof of her work hours. Then in December, her coverage was abruptly canceled — a mistake that took months of calls to a caseworker and visits to a state office to resolve, she said. 'It's a process,' she said. 'Keep continuing to call because your health is very important.' Health advocates say many low-income Americans may not have the time or resources. They are often struggling with food and housing needs. They are also more likely to have limited access to the internet and work informal jobs that don't produce pay stubs. Republican lawmakers have promoted work requirements as a way to boost employment, but most Medicaid recipients already work, and the vast majority who don't are in school, caring for someone, or sick or disabled. Kemp's administration has defended Pathways as a way to transition people to private health care. At least 1,000 people have left the program and obtained private insurance because their income increased, according to the governor's office. After a slow start, advertising and outreach efforts for Pathways have picked up over the last year. At a job fair in Atlanta on Thursday, staff handed out information about the program at a table with mints, hand sanitizer and other swag with the Pathways' logo. A wheel that people could spin for a prize sat on one end. Since Pathways imposed the work requirement only on newly eligible state residents, no one lost coverage. The Arkansas experiment That's a contrast with Arkansas, where 18,000 people were pushed off Medicaid within the first seven months of a 2018 work mandate that applied to some existing beneficiaries. A federal judge later blocked the requirement. The bill that passed the U.S. House would likely cause an estimated 5.2 million people to lose health coverage, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released Wednesday. Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has proposed reviving the work mandate but without requiring people to regularly report employment hours. Instead, the state would rely on existing data to determine enrollees who were not meeting goals for employment and other markers and refer those people to coaches before any decision to suspend them. Arkansas is among at least 10 states pursuing work requirements for their Medicaid programs separate from the effort in Congress. Republican state Sen. Missy Irvin said Arkansas' new initiative aims to understand who the beneficiaries are and what challenges they face. 'We want you to be able to take care of yourself and your family, your loved ones and everybody else,' Irvin said. 'How can we help you? Being a successful individual is a healthy individual.' ___ Associated Press writers Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
