SAN ISIDRO, ARGENTINA: A lawyer for Leopoldo Luque, a doctor charged in the 2020 death of Argentine football legend Diego Maradona, said in closing arguments on Wednesday that his client was innocent and had been made a “scapegoat.”
Attorney Roberto Rallin rejected the prosecution’s argument that Maradona’s November 2020 death was foreseeable, while another defence attorney, Francisco Oneto, maintained that his death resulted from an “acute and unpredictable” heart attack.”There was absolutely no possibility of predicting this fatal outcome,” Oneto insisted.
Prosecutors have requested a 12-year prison sentence for Luque, a neurosurgeon considered a key decision-maker for Maradona at the time of his death.
“We are here to proclaim Luque’s innocence, not with television slogans, but with the evidence that supports it,” Rallin said. “Leopoldo Luque has been the scapegoat.”
Maradona died at age 60 from a cardiorespiratory crisis coupled with pulmonary edema.
He was found dead in his bed at a residence in Tigre, north of Buenos Aires, rented for his convalescence, following surgery for a subdural hematoma.
The death of Argentina’s favourite son plunged the country into mourning in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tens of thousands of people defied social distancing rules to bid farewell to him as he lay in state at the presidential palace.
A total of seven health-care professionals have been on trial since April for potential negligence leading to the star’s death during his two weeks of convalescence.
