BARRIO – Eight people who took care of football legend Diego Maradona will be tried in Argentinian courts for homicide, according to a court ruling following an investigation into his death by cardiac arrest in November 2020.

On Wednesday, a judge ordered a culpable homicide trial for the eight, who include Maradona’s family doctor and nurses, based on evidence that they had failed to take “action that could have prevented the death”.

The defendants have denied responsibility for Maradona’s death. The judge said lawyers for some of them had requested that the case be dismissed.

Maradona died aged 60 while recovering from brain surgery for a blood clot. He had battled cocaine and alcohol addictions for decades.

He was found dead in bed two weeks after going under the knife, in a rented house in an exclusive Buenos Aires neighbourhood where he was brought after being discharged from hospital.