Seven healthcare professionals are on trial for negligence that could result in death, six years after the death of Diego Maradona.
Published on: April 16, 2026 at 8:37 PM Last updated: April 16, 2026 at 11:42 PM Reading time: 4 minutes
A portrait of Diego Maradona in Buenos Aires. (AFP)
“I am innocent,” “I loved him,” declared Leopoldo Luque, Maradona’s former personal physician, heard for the first time at the trial of seven medical team members regarding the circumstances of the death of the Argentine football idol in 2020. “I want to say that I am innocent, and I deeply regret his death,” stated the neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, one of the main accused in the group of healthcare professionals on trial near Buenos Aires since Tuesday, ten months after an aborted initial trial.
These seven practitioners (doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, nurses) face charges of “intentional homicide,” meaning negligence committed with the knowledge that it could lead to death. They all deny any responsibility in Maradona’s death, mostly hiding behind their specialization and roles, even shifting blame onto others. They could face between 8 and 25 years in prison. “I cared a lot for him, I loved him, he was my idol and my friend,” emphasized Leopoldo Luque, his voice overcome by emotion, recalling the relationship he had with this unique patient who became a close friend in his final years.
Leopoldo Luque, 44, spoke for the first time at the trial, including the first one that was canceled in 2025 after more than two months, 20 hearings, and 44 witnesses heard. Luque defended, like other accused, the theory of Maradona’s natural and somewhat inevitable death. Maradona, the 60-year-old Argentine football idol, died on November 25, 2020, from a cardiorespiratory arrest coupled with pulmonary edema while recuperating after uncomplicated neurosurgery for a head hematoma.
“I am not here to say what I think, I am here to say what is written,” said the practitioner. Luque, as Maradona’s personal physician and close to him in his final years, was accused in the first trial by several testimonies as one of the main decision-makers in the star’s inner circle. Luque distanced himself from the choice of home hospitalization, which was agreed upon by the medical team and the family at the time and is now disputed.
At the start of the trial, the prosecution announced it would demonstrate that Maradona’s recovery was “cruel, harsh, and devoid of everything,” and that the medical team “chose to ignore multiple alarms,” abandoning Maradona to his fate, ultimately leading to his death, according to prosecutor Patricio Ferrari. Luque also contested the scenario of Maradona’s approximately 12-hour agony, as suggested by forensic doctors and the prosecution, deeming it incompatible with the causes of death. He stated, “I am absolutely certain that this did not happen.” The trial, with two hearings per week, could last up to three months.
