AFP, BUENOS AIRES :
Diego Maradona’s personal physician denied through his lawyer Monday any responsibility for the football icon’s death, in which he and six other health care workers are being investigated for manslaughter, and requested a new medical board be assigned to the case.
Neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, 39, appeared before Buenos Aires prosecutors to answer to claims that he and other caregivers had neglected Maradona in his final days, precipitating his death.
“Luque has nothing to feel guilty for,” the doctor’s defense attorney Julio Rivas said at the end of Monday’s hearing near Buenos Aires.
“What he said was simply that he was always concerned with Maradona’s health, and every time he was called for any issue, he went and helped him. He was his family doctor, but not in charge of his home care.”
Maradona, 60, was found dead in bed last November, two weeks after the surgery, in a rented house in an exclusive Buenos Aires neighborhood to where he was brought after being discharged from hospital.
He was found to have died of a heart attack. “I see no responsibility either in Agustina or in Leo” for Maradona’s death, Rivas said of Luque and co-accused psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, 36.
According to Luque’s lawyers, two private health care companies bear that responsibility.
But other members of the team have said the duo was in charge of the retired footballer’s care.
A panel of 20 medical experts convened by Argentina’s public prosecutor said last month that Maradona’s treatment was rife with “deficiencies and irregularities.”
But Luque’s lawyers took issue with the report Monday and insisted there were no clinical studies that indicated heart problems for Maradona before his death.
Four checkups between 2019 and 2020 that included cardiology testing were “perfect,” Rivas said, as Luque asked for a new medical review board for the case.
The 20-member panel concluded the footballer “would have had a better chance of survival” with adequate treatment in an appropriate medical facility.
The board found the team had provided inadequate care and abandoned the idolized player to his fate for a “prolonged, agonizing period.”
A judge will next decide whether to order a trial, in a process that could take years. The suspects risk between eight and 25 years in jail if found guilty.
An investigation was opened following a complaint filed by two of Maradona’s five children against Luque, whom they blame for their father’s deterioration after the operation.
Luque, who has described the sporting legend as a friend, arrived at the prosecutor’s office in San Isidro, Buenos Aires, in a dark suit and tie and dark glasses an hour before the hearing Monday.
His questioning closes a two-week process of interrogation. He and the other six have appeared one by one to defend themselves against the accusations.
