The trial for the death of Diego Armando Maradona He was annulled after the challenge of one of the court judges for his participation in a documentary on the case.
These are four keys on the cancellation of the process, the scandal for the actions of Judge Julieta Makintach and the next steps of a trial that has shaken Argentina.
Why was the trial annulled?
The announced decision began to take shape two weeks ago, with the first accusations against Makintach, initially aimed at illegitimately authorized the recording of the first hearings.
From that moment on, an investigation began, which included the suspension of an audience and a series of raids in an audiovisual producer, and that led to Makintach’s departure.
Given this, the Prosecutor’s Office and the majority of lawyers of both the complaints and the defenses They immediately requested the nullity of the trialwhich was announced this Thursday by the remaining two members of the Court, Maximiliano Savarino and Verónica Di Tomasso.
“We consider that the intervention of Dr. Makintach determines the nullity of the debate,” said Savarino, which thus ended the trial Started on March 11 at his audience number 21.
The judge highlighted “the lack of objectivity and interest in the result of the file” by the challenged magistrate, who also said “did not intervene impartially in the development of the debate.”
What was judged?
The trial sought to determine the responsibilities of seven health professionals who attended Maradona In his last days and until his death on November 25, 2020, at 60, during a home hospitalization in the town of Tigre, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
The defendants were the psychiatrist Agustina Cosachovthe neurosurgeon Leopold Luquethe psychologist Carlos Diazthe doctor and coordinator of the company Swiss Medical Nancy Forlinithe nurse Ricardo Almirón And the nurses chief Mariano Perroni.
The accusation against them was simple homicide for eventual intent, which could involve sentences of up to 25 years in prison.
Luque, who also worked as a Maradona Header, was the main point and focus of many of the hearings, and his lawyer, Julio Rivas, was satisfied with the decision, as well as the rest of the lawyers, both defenders and complainants.
How does the process follow?
After the declaration of nullity of the trial, the process must begin from scratch.
All Testimonies and experts presented in the canceled debate will lose validityso they should be repeated, including the 44 testimonies that had already been heard.
The new court that will take charge of the case will be drawn in the next few days or weeks. Once designated, an audience will be convened in which the parties may reorder the test, agree on the audience schedule and define when the oral trial will be resumed.
The complaints insist that the debate You must restart as soon as possible and end before the end of the year.
THE DOCUMENTARY OF DISCORDIA
The controversial documentary project that led to the cancellation of the trial was entitled ‘Divine Justice’, the prosecution revealed on Tuesday, and consisted of a miniseries of six episodes about the debate starring, in part, by Judge Makintach.
“This was a reality, a permanent over -acting of Dr. Makintach, who at all times officiated as an actress and not as a judge,” said the prosecutor in his request for challenge, after exhibiting a trailer of the documentary that combined Maradona images with plans of Judge Makintach parading through the courts with electronic background music.
In addition, he presented part of the script of the miniseries, whose six episodes were going to have a duration of 30 minutes each.
The first chapter included images of the judge at home, preparing and putting on to go to the court and a statement in which I said: “All my life I prepared for this, life or God put me here to do justice.”