The retrial over the death of Argentine football legend Diego Maradona was suspended on Thursday after defence lawyers alleged that medical tests used by experts to assess the former player actually belonged to his late father.
The discovery has thrown fresh uncertainty into a case that has already been disrupted by a major judicial controversy and could undermine part of the medical evidence supporting the prosecution.
Seven healthcare workers are standing trial over the circumstances surrounding Maradona’s death at the age of 60 in November 2020.
The defendants include his neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, psychologist Carlos Díaz and healthcare coordinator Nancy Forlini.
They have denied responsibility for his death.
The controversy emerged during the testimony of nephrologist Hernán Trimarchi, a member of the interdisciplinary medical panel established to examine the circumstances surrounding Maradona’s death.
Trimarchi told the court that Maradona suffered from chronic kidney disease and should have received closer medical monitoring during his recovery.
He said his condition required regular weighing and laboratory monitoring because kidney problems could contribute to fluid retention, heart failure and breathing difficulties.
But defence lawyer Nicolás D’Albora, representing Forlini, reportedly noticed that some of the kidney studies cited by the expert dated from 2012 to 2015 and carried a Swiss Medical membership number associated with Maradona’s father rather than the footballer.
The discrepancy is significant because Maradona spent much of 2015 in Dubai and returned to Argentina after his father became seriously ill. His father, Diego Salustiano Maradona, died in June that year.
The defence has asked that the records be checked against Swiss Medical files and immigration records to establish who underwent the tests and when.
Prosecutor Patricio Ferrari has rejected suggestions that the discovery will collapse the case.
“They will not succeed in bringing down the trial,” Ferrari said.
A lawyer for Forlini also indicated that the defence was not immediately seeking another mistrial.
“I want this case to end so that my client knows her judicial fate,” he said.
The disputed evidence could nevertheless become a major issue because the medical panel’s conclusions form an important part of the prosecution case.
If it is established that experts relied on the father’s medical records when assessing Maradona, the credibility of some of the panel’s conclusions could come under serious scrutiny.
The latest controversy comes about a year after the first trial was annulled after it emerged that former judge Julieta Makintach had secretly participated in a documentary about the case.
A new trial began in April and had been moving toward a crucial phase, with medical experts giving evidence about Maradona’s heart, kidneys, medications and condition before his death.
Maradona died on November 25, 2020, from acute pulmonary edema and heart failure, weeks after undergoing surgery for a subdural hematoma.
He had been recovering at a rented property in Tigre, Buenos Aires province.
Prosecutors allege that members of his medical team failed to provide adequate care during his home recovery. The defendants dispute the allegations.
The court has now paused proceedings to examine the disputed medical records and determine whether the tests used in the case belonged to Diego Maradona or his father.
For a case already forced to restart once, the latest evidence dispute adds another major test for Argentina’s judicial process.
