In the northern Buenos Aires suburb of San Isidro, the trial over Diego Maradona’s death has reached its sentencing stage, with prosecutors seeking a 12-year prison term for his former personal doctor, Leopoldo Luque.
Luque, a neurosurgeon, is accused of simple homicide with eventual intent in connection with Maradona’s death on 25 November 2020. Prosecutors also asked for a 10-year professional ban for the doctor.
Quick facts
- Prosecutors requested 12 years in prison and a 10-year professional disqualification for Leopoldo Luque.
- Home-care coordinator Nancy Forlini faces a requested 10-year sentence and 10-year ban.
- Psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov could receive eight years in prison and a 10-year ban.
- The proceedings have included 45 hearings, 75 witnesses and around 100 phone messages presented as evidence.
- Prosecutors requested the acquittal of clinical doctor Pedro Di Spagna.
The prosecution requested 10 years in prison, plus a decade-long professional ban, for Nancy Forlini, the Swiss Medical coordinator responsible for arranging Maradona’s home care. Psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov faces a proposed eight-year prison sentence and the same 10-year restriction from practice.
Both Forlini and Cosachov are charged with homicide with eventual intent, an offence in which a person is alleged to have understood that their actions could result in death but proceeded while accepting that risk.
For psychologist Carlos Díaz, prosecutors requested five years in prison and a 10-year ban from professional work. Nursing chief Mariano Perroni and nurse Ricardo Almirón each face proposed four-year prison terms and eight-year professional disqualifications.
Díaz, Perroni and Almirón are accused of negligent homicide rather than homicide with eventual intent. The requested punishments therefore differ from those sought for the three principal defendants.
Prosecutors asked the court to clear Pedro Di Spagna, who visited Maradona only once during the period under examination. Their case was that the clinical doctor had neither the authority nor the decision-making role needed to direct the patient’s medical care.
Maradona died while receiving treatment at home, weeks after brain surgery. Prosecutor Patricio Ferrari argued that the six defendants pursued by the state failed in their obligations, acted against accepted medical practice, omitted necessary care and left the former Argentina captain in a position of abandonment.
In closing arguments, the prosecution portrayed the home-treatment arrangement as disorderly, split between two competing command structures and separate information channels. Luque, as Maradona’s personal physician, and Forlini, representing Swiss Medical’s care operation, were identified as the two figures at the centre of that fractured system.
The trial began on 14 April before Criminal Court No. 7 in San Isidro. Over 45 evidentiary sessions, the court heard testimony from 75 people and reviewed roughly a hundred messages taken from the defendants’ phones.
