Maradona trial: Daughters seek up to 15 years in prison for medical team

The trial over the death of Diego Armando Maradona moved into its final stage on Wednesday with a closing argument that lasted more than five hours. Lawyers for Dalma and Gianinna Maradona requested prison sentences ranging from ten to fifteen years for three of the doctors on trial and added psychologist Carlos Díaz to their accusation, even though other parties had asked for his acquittal. It was the longest argument presented so far and the fifth and final one from the prosecution side.

• Dalma and Gianinna Maradona are asking for fifteen years in prison for Leopoldo Luque, twelve for Nancy Forlini and ten for Agustina Cosachov.
• The requested sentences are higher than those demanded by the prosecution.
• Carlos Díaz was included in the accusation for negligent homicide with a request of five years in prison.
• The lawyers described Maradona as a mythological hero and stressed that he died alone in the house in Tigre.
• For nurses Mariano Perroni and Ricardo Almirón they requested four years and six months in prison, respectively.

The sentences requested by Maradona's daughters for each defendant

The accusation brought by Dalma and Gianinna Maradona focused on the charge of simple homicide with eventual intent for the three professionals who carried the most responsibility in the treatment. For neurosurgeon and personal physician Leopoldo Luque they requested fifteen years in prison, while for Nancy Forlini, home care coordinator at Swiss Medical, they asked for twelve. Psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov faces a request of ten years. In all three cases they also demanded a ten-year professional ban.

The numbers exceeded what the prosecution had asked for, setting the tone of an argument aimed at reinforcing the severity of what happened in November 2020. For head nurse Mariano Perroni and nurse Ricardo Almirón, on the other hand, the daughters of the legendary number ten requested four years and six months in prison, respectively, plus a nine-year ban, but under the lesser charge of negligent homicide.

Psychologist Carlos Díaz enters the accusation of Dalma and Gianinna

The biggest difference with the rest of the parties came with Carlos Díaz. While two of the plaintiffs asked for his acquittal and the prosecution did not include him among the main defendants, the lawyers for Dalma and Gianinna requested five years in prison and a ten-year professional ban for negligent homicide. Fabián Améndola, one of the legal representatives, was blunt: for them there is no doubt that Díaz is responsible.

The accusation claims that the psychologist had a decisive influence on medical decisions that ended up weakening the monitoring system around Maradona's health. According to their explanation, he took part in excluding therapeutic companions from the home treatment, suggested limiting nursing checks to the administration of medication and recommended that the former footballer not receive visits from his family during his final days of life.

The decision for home care and the conditions of the house in Tigre

The lawyers also targeted Leopoldo Luque for deciding that Maradona should not continue his recovery in a clinic after his last surgery. Instead, the icon was moved to a house in the Buenos Aires town of Tigre whose conditions became one of the focal points of the legal debate. Fernando Burlando, another of the attorneys, highlighted the contrast between what the family heard about a serious home hospitalization and what witnesses described during the trial.

Diego died alone in that house.

Améndola's words summed up one of the hardest moments of the closing argument. According to his presentation, the reduction of information resources and the imposition of family distance increased the risks at a time when there were already warning signs about the patient's health.

Messages between the defendants and the prophecy about demigods

During the hearing, messages that the defendants sent to each other while Maradona was under treatment were read aloud. One of them, sent by Carlos Díaz to psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, drew the attention of the court. Referring to the handling of the case, the text said that either they lost their licenses and went to prison, or they became demigods.

Améndola picked up that phrase to close his presentation with a direct message to the judges. He said that there were no demigods in that room and that what they were asking was for that prophecy to be fulfilled, referring to a conviction for those responsible.

A trial that defines Maradona's collective memory

Burlando called the process a great date with history and warned that the court's decision will be burned into the collective memory of several generations. In his presentation, he defined Maradona as a mythological hero, a warrior capable of returning from oblivion and death, and claimed that he was killed in a cowardly way, taking advantage of the vulnerability of his health and worsening it to the limit.

The court must now hear the closing arguments of the defense before issuing a verdict. The trial, which began with eight health professionals indicted, has reduced the list of defendants based on the different positions of the prosecution and the plaintiffs. The case seeks to determine whether Maradona's death, which occurred on November 25, 2020, from heart failure and acute pulmonary edema, could have been avoided with adequate treatment.