Phoenix 24
The trial is shifting from tragedy toward legal accountability.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Argentine prosecutors have requested prison sentences for six of the medical professionals accused over the care Diego Maradona received during the final days of his life. The harshest requested sentence is 12 years for neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, while prosecutors are seeking 10 years for psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, eight years for medical coordinator Nancy Forlini, five years for a psychologist and four years each for two members of the nursing structure. All six are accused of homicide with intent based on alleged acts and omissions that prosecutors argue contributed to Maradona’s death. A seventh defendant, physician Pedro Di Spagna, has been cleared by prosecutors.
Maradona died at his home in Dique Luján in November 2020 after suffering pulmonary edema caused by heart failure. His autopsy also documented serious underlying conditions, including liver cirrhosis, pulmonary disease, kidney problems and severe cardiac alterations. Prosecutors argue that this complex clinical picture required a level of medical supervision and intervention that was not provided. The defense, by contrast, maintains that Maradona suffered an acute and unpredictable cardiac event.
Luque remains the central figure in the prosecution’s case. Prosecutors accuse him of failing to maintain an updated medical history, not arranging hospitalization in a specialized medical center and ignoring visible signs of fluid retention and heart failure. They argue that the decisions surrounding home hospitalization created an unsafe environment for a medically fragile patient. Luque has rejected those claims and defended his actions throughout the proceedings.
The accusations against the wider medical team focus on what prosecutors describe as a chaotic and poorly coordinated system of care. Forlini, who oversaw part of the home-treatment arrangement, has also come under intense criticism from the prosecution. The case therefore extends beyond the decisions of one doctor and examines how several professionals collectively managed Maradona’s final stage of treatment. The legal question is whether those failures amounted to criminal responsibility rather than medical error alone.
The defense phase now becomes decisive. Lawyers for each defendant will be given extensive time to challenge the prosecution’s reconstruction of events and argue that causation has not been proven beyond reasonable doubt. The court must distinguish between negligence, poor coordination, clinical uncertainty and conduct serious enough to justify criminal punishment. That distinction will determine how one of Argentina’s most emotionally charged medical trials is ultimately judged.
Maradona’s death has long been part of national memory. The trial is now forcing Argentina to confront a different question: not only how he died, but whether the people responsible for protecting his health failed him in ways the law can punish.
Legacy becomes law when memory enters the courtroom.