San Isidro (Argentina) (AFP) – Six and a half years later, the circumstances of Diego Maradona's death return to the Argentine courts, with the opening on Tuesday of a second trial, ten months after the cancellation of the first amid scandal for a documentary film prepared in secret, with the help of a judge.

Published on: 04/14/2026 - 5:43 p.m.

Seven health professionals (doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, nurses) are on trial in San Isidro, north of Buenos Aires, for at least three months, at two hearings per week, for negligence that may have led to the death of the football idol.

Did the "God" Maradona - never dethroned in the hearts of many Argentines, not even by Lionel Messi - die when his body, worn out by excesses and addictions, inevitably let go? Or did the medical team watching over him fail, or even knowingly?

These doubts return, intact, before the judges.

The defendants are being prosecuted for “homicide with dolus eventualis”, in other words negligence committed knowing that it could lead to death. They face between eight and 25 years in prison.

The hearing on Tuesday, in the presence in particular of Diego Maradona's three daughters and his sisters, began with a brief debate on the live broadcast of the entire trial, and not only the initial day and the end, noted AFP. The trio of judges rejected a defense lawyer's request.

Maradona died at the age of 60, on November 25, 2020, of a cardiorespiratory crisis coupled with pulmonary edema, alone on his bed in a private residence where he was convalescing after neurosurgery for a head hematoma.

“Abandoned to his fate”

In his initial statement, prosecutor Patrico Ferrari assured that the prosecution would demonstrate "all types of omissions", during a "cruel, terse hospitalization, devoid of everything", on the part of the medical team, a "group of improvised people" who "abandoned Diego Maradona to his fate, condemning him to death".

The accused deny any responsibility for this death, hiding behind their segmented roles.

“My role and my responsibility were consistent with my profession, (that of) a psychiatrist, and I always acted with the total conviction that what I was doing was correct in the interest of the patient,” Agustina Cosachov argued at the bar of the first trial.

It was canceled in May 2025, after more than 20 hearings, 44 witnesses heard, against a backdrop of scandal. A judge, Julieta Makintach, had, unbeknownst to everyone, collaborated in the production of a documentary mini-series on the case, with herself starring.

She has since been dismissed. The new trial is presided over by a new trio of magistrates.

“None of this (a second trial) should be happening,” lamented Jana, one of Maradona’s daughters, as the deadline approached. “That it was not resolved then (at the first trial), for me it was like mourning a second time,” she told the online site Infobae.

A “B side” to the affair?

Outside the small court in San Isidro, handfuls of Diego's admirers crowded Tuesday morning between flags bearing the star's image and signs demanding "Justice for D1OS" ("God" and "N°10").

Thus, Francisco Tesch, 34 years old, came from the great suburbs of Buenos Aires, with the hope "that the light will be shed". "From the moment he died, we all wondered who Diego was, who was in his entourage, why we didn't protect him. I think many of us are asking ourselves the question," he confided to AFP.

The first trial exposed deep flaws surrounding the end of the star's life. In particular on the merits of hospitalization at home instead of a clinic, on the unsuitable medical equipment on site - no oxygen, no serums, heart monitor - and on the level of medical monitoring.

The autopsy concluded that Maradona had been in agony for "at least 12 hours" before being found on his deathbed, with the rigidity suggesting he had been dead for two hours.

The first trial also raised the question of who was the decision-maker in the star's entourage. His daughters and an ex-partner said they were kept aside and under-informed by the medical team.

For what purposes? Fernando Burlando, the virulent lawyer of Dalma and Gianinna, the eldest daughters, spoke in 2025 of "assassination" and mentioned a "pecuniary interest" of third parties in the death of Maradona, according to him the "B side" of the case.

© 2026 AFP

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