The Argentine Prosecutor's Office presented its closing arguments on Thursday in the trial for the death of Diego Armando Maradona and requested 12 years in prison for neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, the personal physician of the star, accused of the crime of simple homicide with eventual intent, along with 10 years of professional disqualification.
The prosecutor Patricio Ferrari described the care that Maradona received during his home admission as "the most deficient and reckless hospitalization of all time" and labeled the medical team as a "group of amateurs."
In addition to the maximum sentence requested for Luque, the prosecution requested 10 years in prison and another 10 years of disqualification for Nancy Forlini, coordinator of home care at the company Swiss Medical, also for homicide with eventual intent.
For psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, the prosecutors requested eight years in prison and 10 years of disqualification under the same charge, while for psychologist Carlos Díaz, they sought five years in jail and 10 years of disqualification, as he was accused in this case of involuntary manslaughter.
The head nurse Mariano Perroni and the nurse Ricardo Almirón each received a request for four years in prison and eight years of disqualification, also for involuntary manslaughter.
The only one of the seven defendants for whom the Prosecutor's Office requested acquittal was the clinical doctor Pedro Di Spagna, who Ferrari argued "did not have the authority or decision-making power to influence the patient's health," given that he only visited Maradona on one occasion.
The difference between the applied charges is substantial: homicide with eventual intent —charged against Luque, Forlini, and Cosachov— implies that the accused were aware that their actions could result in death and chose to accept that risk, while negligent homicide entails carelessness without intention.
In their statements, prosecutors Ferrari and Cosme Iribarren described the management as "anarchic, with two leaderships and two independent channels of information, sharing the same common trait: absolute disorganization," pointing to Luque as the personal physician and Forlini, coordinator of Swiss Medical, as the two pillars of that chaos.
According to the indictment, the defendants "violated their duties, carried out actions contrary to the practice of medicine, omitted all the actions they should have taken, and placed Maradona in a situation of helplessness, leaving him to his fate."
The Prosecutor's Office also stated that Maradona began to die approximately 12 hours before his passing and that a timely transfer to a medical center could have saved his life.
Luque himself, in his latest statement before the court on September 29, denied all responsibility and asserted that the death was "a sudden, acute, and unpredictable cardiac event." "I loved him, he was my idol," declared the neurosurgeon.
Maradona passed away on November 25, 2020, at the age of 60, in a residence in the private neighborhood of San Andrés, in Benavídez, Buenos Aires province, where he was undergoing home hospitalization following surgery for a subdural hematoma. The official cause of death was acute pulmonary edema secondary to exacerbated chronic heart failure.
This is the second oral trial for the case: the first one, which began in March 2025, was annulled after it was discovered that the judge was participating in an unauthorized documentary about the process. The current proceedings started on April 14 before the Criminal Oral Court No. 7 in San Isidro. Following the Prosecutor's arguments, the statements from the plaintiffs and the defenses are still pending before the court issues its verdict.
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