Maradona death trial closes, verdict for seven medical staff due 22 December

The trial reaches its final stage

The oral hearings in the trial over the death of Diego Maradona have concluded, and the San Isidro court has set 22 December as the date for its verdict. Seven people, described as doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists and nurses, have been on trial since April, accused of negligence in the treatment of the former footballer while he was convalescing in a house he had rented. Maradona died on 25 November 2020 at the age of 60, two weeks after brain surgery for a subdural hematoma. An autopsy cited a heart attack and pulmonary oedema as the causes of death. The defendants deny the allegations.

An emotional appeal from his daughter

Dalma Maradona, his eldest daughter, became overcome with tears during an unscheduled address to the judges at the close of the oral proceedings. She said the family had been forced to hear terrible things during the trial, and that they had known this could happen. She spoke with a broken voice as she asked that her father receive justice, like any other person, beyond the fact that he was Maradona. The court then communicated the date on which the verdict will be read.

Prosecutors seek prison terms

Prosecutors have asked for a 12-year prison sentence for Leopoldo Luque, a 45-year-old neurosurgeon who was Maradona's trusted doctor and the main decision-maker on his medical team at the time of his death. For six of the seven defendants, they requested sentences between four and 12 years. Civil parties, including Maradona's children or sisters, asked for terms of up to 16 years for some defendants, among them Luque. Prosecutors criticised Luque's inaction, arguing that his approach had always been to do nothing in the face of warning signs such as heart failure and swelling. They relied on a medical commission the court set up in 2021, which found that Maradona's history of heart problems should have been taken into account.

The defence rejects the charges

Defence lawyer Roberto Rallin rejected the prosecution's argument that Maradona's death was foreseeable, and told the court that his client is innocent. He put the core of the defence plainly, saying Luque has been singled out for blame.

Leopoldo Luque has been the scapegoat.

Francisco Oneto, the other defence lawyer, maintained that the death followed an acute and unpredictable heart attack. Speaking on 21 October, Oneto insisted that the outcome could not have been anticipated.

There was absolutely no possibility of predicting this fatal outcome.

Luque's lawyers also challenged the conclusions of the interdisciplinary medical commission, which the court had established in 2021 to give an opinion on the death.

Background and the first trial

Maradona's death came during the COVID-19 pandemic and plunged Argentina into mourning. Tens of thousands of people defied social distancing rules to bid farewell to him while he lay in state at the presidential palace. He was found dead in his bed at the Tigre residence, north of Buenos Aires, which had been rented for his recovery. An earlier attempt to try the case collapsed in 2025 because a judge was biased, after she had secretly helped prepare a documentary series about the case. The current proceedings began in April and ran for about fifty hearings over six months.

What happens next

The court will deliver its verdict on 22 December, a date set on 22 October at the end of the oral hearings. The ruling is meant to determine responsibility for Maradona's death. Until then, the seven defendants remain on trial and deny the charges, with the defence focused on the claim that the fatal heart attack could not have been foreseen.