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Diego Maradona: Seven people who treated footballer before his death charged with involuntary manslaughter

Maradona, who won the 1986 World Cup with Argentina, died of a heart attack a few weeks after brain surgery in November 2020.

Diego Maradona died in November 2020
Image: Diego Maradona died in November 2020
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Seven people who treated Diego Maradona in the days before his death have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

The Argentine football legend died of a heart attack aged 60 last November - two weeks after undergoing brain surgery.

A report prepared by a medical board and passed to prosecutors earlier this month found the former Barcelona and Napoli player was in agony for more than 12 hours, did not get adequate medical attention, and could still be alive if he had been properly hospitalised.

Diego Maradona kisses the World Cup after Argentina beat  West Germany in 1986
Image: The 1986 World Cup winner suffered a heart attack

Following Maradona's death, his lawyer Matias Moria tweeted: "The ambulance took more than half an hour to arrive, which was a criminal idiocy."

Neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov were among those charged - alongside a psychiatrist, a doctor, two nurses and a nurse coordinator.

Following Maradona's death, Dr Luque spoke publicly about how he had tried to help the aging soccer player.

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The 1986 World Cup winner had struggled with substance and alcohol abuse problems in later life.

After Maradona died, Mr Luque told a local television station: "I did the best I could with Diego. He needed help."

Personal physician of Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona, Dr. Leopoldo Luque
Image: Dr Leopoldo Luque has been charged with manslaughter

The medical panel's report said "the patient's signs of risk of life were ignored" and that Maradona "showed unequivocal signs of a prolonged agony period" for upwards of 12 hours.

Maradona was living in a rented home at the time of his death.

The care he received there "did not fulfil the minimum requirements" for someone with his past health problems, and he would have survived with "adequate hospitalisation", the report added.

Mr Luque's lawyer said earlier that the contents of the report were flawed and "biased... with no scientific foundation".