Gianinna Maradona angrily confronted neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque on the witness stand Tuesday, accusing him of shirking responsibility for her father’s care. Luque has been described as Diego Maradona’s primary physician at the time of the football legend’s 2020 death.
Gianinna testified in a court in San Isidro, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, where seven medical professionals face trial on negligence charges tied to Maradona’s death.
“I heard on television that he said he wasn’t his doctor, and it makes me very angry that he won’t take responsibility,” she told the court.
The trial resumed after a mistrial was declared last May, when one of the original presiding judges, Julieta Makintach, stepped down following criticism over her participation in a documentary about the case.
Prosecutors contend Maradona’s medical team failed to provide adequate care in the weeks before his death. Maradona, 60, died of cardiac arrest while recuperating at home after surgery to remove a blood clot on the brain.
The defendants deny wrongdoing. They are charged with culpable homicide, a charge similar to involuntary manslaughter that alleges the accused knew of risks their alleged negligent conduct created and failed to address them.
Gianinna singled out Luque along with psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov and psychologist Carlos Diaz, saying they were in charge of Maradona’s medical oversight and the decision to keep him under home confinement — a period she said during which his condition deteriorated without effective intervention.
Luque’s defense has argued the opposite: that Gianinna and her sister Dalma, Maradona’s daughters from his relationship with Claudia Villafañe, did not act quickly enough as their father’s health declined.
