"Dark, ugly place": Maradona's daughter accuses doctors of "terrible manipulation"

Gianinna Maradona is making serious allegations in the criminal trial against her father Diego's doctors. She accuses them of manipulating the family into placing the football legend in home care after surgery. She claims her father was in poor health.

In the criminal trial against the doctors and nurses of football legend Diego Maradona, a daughter of the Argentine icon has made serious allegations against the medical team. Her family was manipulated by doctor Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, and psychologist Carlos Díaz into agreeing to Maradona's transfer to home care after brain surgery, Gianinna Maradona said as a witness in the court proceedings concerning her father's death four and a half years ago.

"I feel great pain; it seems very unfair to me. Those in charge promised us things that never happened. It was a terrible manipulation," the newspaper "La Nación" quoted Maradona's daughter as saying. "After all, they achieved what they wanted: to keep my father in a dark, ugly, and lonely place." Even in the weeks before his death, her father had made a bad impression on her. He was confused and no longer recognized himself in pictures.

Since mid-March, seven doctors and nurses in a Buenos Aires suburb have been on trial for Maradona's death. Prosecutors accuse them of manslaughter. All defendants deny the charges. If convicted, they face prison sentences of up to 25 years.

Maradona died of a heart attack on November 25, 2020, at the age of 60 in a private residential complex north of Buenos Aires. He had undergone brain surgery a few weeks earlier. Investigators believe that serious errors were made in the home care of the 1986 World Cup winner, who was in serious health problems.