Maradona doctor in manslaughter probe after home and clinic raids
DIEGo Maradona’s death was being treated as a possible case of manslaughter yesterday after police raided the home and clinic of the footballer’s doctor.
It follows reports the 60-year-old had rowed with personal physician Leopoldo Luque in the days before his death.
Maradona – regarded by many as the greatest footballer of all time – died last Wednesday following a heart attack.
But prosecutors behind the search order, said to have been sanctioned by a judge, are understood to be trying to establish whether he was the victim of medical negligence. Police were seen entering Dr Luque’s clinic yesterday, and he was at his home on the outskirts of Argentinian capital Buenos Aires as it was searched.
The raids were ordered after Maradona’s daughters Dalma and Giannina gave statements on Saturday and questioned whether the medication their father was receiving was appropriate. At this stage Dr Luque, 39, can be questioned as an ‘imputado’ – someone who is under official investigation on suspicion of possible negligence – rather than as a simple witness.
But he will be charged with culpable homicide – the equivalent of a British manslaughter charge – if prosecutors find sufficient evidence to do so. Maradona had been recovering at home, under the care of Dr Luque, following an operation on a brain blood clot two weeks before his death.
The doctor yesterday broke down in tears as he defended his treatment of the Argentinian World Cup winner. He said: ‘I was shocked when police turned up at my door.
‘I’m going to co- operate fully. I feel terrible because a friend died. I don’t blame myself for anything. It’s very unfair what’s happening.
‘Someone is trying to find a scapegoat here when I don’t see one anywhere.’