Argentine prosecutors investigate possible negligence in Maradona's death


REUTERS | Published: November 30, 2020 08:57:50 | Updated: December 01, 2020 10:59:45


Police officers stand guard outside the building where Leopoldo Luque, the personal doctor of late Argentine soccer legend Diego Armando Maradona, has his office in Buenos Aires, Argentina on November 29, 2020 — Reuters photo

Argentine justice officials on Sunday (local time) seized medical files from the doctor of Diego Maradona as part of their investigation into the recent death of the football star.

Maradona died at age 60 on Wednesday after a heart attack.

The search was requested by prosecutors in the rich Buenos Aires suburb of San Isidro. The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that no charges had been brought against the doctor, Leopoldo Luque, or anyone else, but the probe would continue.

“We have started to analyze the material that was taken” from Luque’s home and office, the statement said. It did not provide information on what prompted the probe.

“They took the clinical files,” Luque told reporters.

“There was no medical error,” Luque said, adding that he was not responsible for the death of the football player who catapulted to international fame and semi-divine status at home after leading the Argentine team that won the 1986 World Cup.

In later years, Maradona struggled with substance abuse issues. “Diego was tired, tired of being ‘Maradona’”, Luque said.

The player’s lawyer, Matias Moria, on Thursday said he would ask for a full investigation of the circumstances of the football legend’s death, criticising what he said was a slow response by emergency service.

“The ambulance took more than half an hour to arrive, which was criminal idiocy,” Matias said on Thursday in a Twitter post.

Luque said faster ambulance service would not have saved Maradona’s life. “You would have needed medical equipment at his house, including a respirator,” he told reporters.

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