Maradona’s doctor on stand

Buenos Aires – Argentine prosecutors will today question Diego Maradona’s personal physician, implicated with six other medical professionals in having neglected the ailing football icon in his final days.

The appearance of Leopoldo Luque, 39, will close the process of interrogating the seven.

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.

The seven were placed under investigation for manslaughter after a board of experts looking into Maradona’s death found he had received inadequate care and was abandoned to his fate for a “prolonged, agonising period”.

The sporting legend died of a heart attack last November at the age of 60, weeks after undergoing brain surgery for a blood clot.

An investigation was opened following a complaint filed by two of Maradona’s children against Luque, whom they blame for his deterioration after the operation.

A panel of 20 medical experts said last month that Maradona’s treatment was rife with “deficiencies and irregularities” and the medical team had left his survival “to fate”.

The panel concluded he “would have had a better chance of survival” with adequate treatment in an appropriate medical facility.

Instead, he died alone in his bed in a rented house in an exclusive Buenos Aires neighbourhood where he was receiving home care.