Maradona trial: the defense pleads for acquittal for the addiction specialist and the psychiatrist

The trial over the death of Diego Maradona entered its final stretch on Tuesday, with pleas for acquittal for psychologist Carlos Diaz and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, described by their lawyers as strangers to the death, or powerless, or ill-informed.

Addiction expert Carlos Diaz is a special case in the trial, which has been ongoing since April, of the medical team for potential negligence that led to the death of the legendary footballer, who died in November 2020 during home hospitalization to recover from minor neurosurgery.

Mr. Diaz, 34, had intervened in the last month of Maradona's life to accompany him towards a withdrawal from alcohol and psychotropic drugs.

However, while the prosecution and civil parties have requested prison sentences for six of the seven defendants, Diaz's case has been divisive, revealing a certain ambiguity about the real responsibilities surrounding Maradona in his final days.

Thus, the prosecution requested five years in prison against him, as did two other parties, but the lawyer for one of Maradona's sons demanded 12 years imprisonment, and two other parties requested his outright acquittal.

"They have not been able to agree on the charges against Carlos Diaz nor on the reasons why he should be held accountable for Maradona's death. This is a crucial point in this trial," his lawyer, Luciano Zorrilla, concluded on Tuesday, opening the defense's arguments.

The parties "were contradictory and mutually exclusive" regarding his role, he insisted: "If there is no certainty, there is doubt, and if there is doubt, there is acquittal."

"Diaz is not a doctor, nurse, or radiologist: he is a psychologist. He was hired to ensure that Maradona did not drink alcohol or take drugs, and Maradona died without alcohol or drugs in his blood," asserted his other lawyer, Diego Olmedo, citing post-mortem toxicology tests.

The death was "the result of medical issues that were beyond Carlos Diaz's control. He is a psychologist," he insisted. "And because of his specialty and his role, he had no way of preventing" the death.

Private service provider implicated

Maradona, found dead in his bed at a residence in Tigre (north of Buenos Aires) rented for his convalescence, died at the age of 60 from a cardiorespiratory crisis coupled with pulmonary edema.

Arguing for psychiatrist Cosachov, 41, against whom the prosecution had sought eight years in prison, lawyer Vadim Mischanchuk also invoked his client's specialty, who "from the beginning has been clear, saying 'I was Maradona's psychiatrist'", with the corresponding medication.

He did, however, place the blame squarely on the private provider Swiss Medical, whose representative, Nancy Forlini, a co-defendant, was then the medical coordinator for the patient's recovery. The prosecution had sought a 10-year sentence for her.

"Dr. Cosachov did not improvise in any way: if you read the medical file, (she) was on the contrary obsessive" about Maradona's care, but was not informed or was poorly informed, even kept out of messaging groups between the provider and the nurses, he stated.

"No one informed her about the tachycardia, the hypertension, no one told her anything. She gathered the information she could and they told her what they wanted," he insisted.

"As she learned the bad news, she did something to remedy it," he insisted, instead accusing Swiss Medical of "doing whatever it wanted."

The medical information coming from Maradona's place of convalescence "was like being in a Bermuda Triangle," he accused.

After the defense's closing arguments, which are expected to continue until Thursday, the verdict is expected to be reserved until a later date.