San Isidro.- The Argentine Justice will decide on Thursday if the process that investigates the circumstances of the death of Diego Maradona It must be canceled and start over, after the challenge of one of the judges for participating in an unauthorized documentary about the case.
The Prosecutor’s Office, the complainants and most defense lawyers requested on Tuesday that three new judges are designated and the process is restarted, which seeks to define whether the death of the football star in 2020 was a homicide.
If the Court granted the request, the 20 hearings held since March, in which more than 40 witnesses, evidence and testified, the three daughters of Maradona would be annulled.
Seven health professionals are accused of homicide with eventual intent for the death of Maradona, due to a pulmonary edema while in a home hospitalization recovering from neurological surgery.
The penalty if they are found guilty goes from 8 to 25 years in prison.
The two magistrates who were in charge of the cause will announce their decision on the fate of the trial at a hearing convened for this Thursday at 12h00 premises (15h00 GMT).
“New trial”
Judge Julieta Makintach departed from the case on Tuesday after the scandal unleashed for her participation in a documentary series on it, partially recorded in the San Isidro court, 30 km north of Buenos Aires, where the process occurs.
The recording was made without knowledge of the parties. Images and scripts of the series were exhibited at a hearing on Tuesday and the judge resigned immediately.
“You have to make a new trial. Sometimes you have to take a step back to be able to give two forward,” said one of the prosecutors of the case, Patricio Ferrari on Wednesday.
“We cannot validate that the acts made by the challenged judge are valid. This could then generate impunity,” La Red told Radio.
The prosecutor asks that “a new court” of three magistrates and that the trial resumes “this year.”
Until the scandal broke out, the trial was held at the rate of two weekly audiences and it was expected to extend until July.
The prosecution’s request obtained the support of all parties except two of the seven defenses, which propose to replace the magistrate with a new judge and continue the process.
The Supreme Court of the Province of Buenos Aires graduated to the judge after the scandal and the case was referred to a discipline commission of the Judiciary.
Home care
Considered one of the best players in history, Maradona died at 60 on November 25, 2020 in Tigre, in the province of Buenos Aires.
The “ten” died from a pulmonary edema when he received home medical attention after an operation in the head to which he had been subjected two weeks before due to a bruise.
Throughout the trial, the witnesses affirmed that the house where Maradona carried his convalescence did not have the right conditions to attend him and that the care he received from the medical team in charge had been questioned by the family.
An eighth nurse will be processed in a separate trial.
