Judge Julieta Makintach was accused of participating in a documentary about the famed football player’s death.
One of the three judges presiding over a negligence trial related to the death of Argentinian football player Diego Maradona has resigned, leaving the case’s future uncertain.
On Tuesday, Judge Julieta Makintach announced she would recuse herself after reports emerged that she had participated in a documentary about Maradona’s death and its aftermath.
“This is a judicial tragedy,” said Fernando Burlando, a lawyer for Maradona’s eldest daughters, Dalma and Gianinna.
Judges are largely forbidden from taking part in interviews and other public commentary while proceedings are ongoing. Since March 11, Makintach has been part of a three-judge panel weighing the fate of seven healthcare workers who tended to Maradona during his final days.
The seven have been charged with negligent homicide following Maradona’s death by cardiac arrest in 2020 at age 60.
It is a high-profile case that has stirred a great deal of scrutiny in Argentina. Maradona is a national hero, having led the national football squad to a World Cup victory in 1986.
His performance in that year’s World Cup tournament has since become the stuff of sporting legend. Even a foul he committed during the quarterfinal has been dubbed the “Hand of God”, since it led to an Argentinian victory over England – a rival with whom the country had an ongoing territorial dispute.
In 2000, the football governing body, FIFA, named Maradona one of its two “Players of the Century”, alongside Brazil’s Pele.
But Maradona struggled with addiction, and he passed away shortly after undergoing brain surgery for a blood clot. The circumstances of his death, in turn, led to questions about whether the football player received adequate medical care in his final days.
The seven defendants include a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist, nurses and other healthcare professionals who attended to him. They face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. An eighth person is expected to face court separately.
More than 190 witnesses are expected to testify against the seven main defendants. One coroner already told the court in March that Maradona’s death “was foreseeable” and that the football player likely died in “agony”.
But the trial was brought to a halt last week when one of the key defendants, Leopoldo Luque, called for Judge Makintach to be removed from the bench.
Luque was a neurosurgeon and a personal doctor to Maradona when he died. Luque’s lawyer, Julio Rivas, told the court that his client had been approached by the BBC, a British news company, to take part in the documentary.
Through that interaction, Rivas explained they found out that the documentary’s production company had ties to Judge Makintach’s brother, Juan Makintach.
Police also indicated that they had seen a camera in the courtroom, allegedly approved by Judge Makintach.
On May 20, prosecutor Patricio Ferrari called for the trial to be paused for a week while the incident was reviewed. Footage was presented to the court from the documentary, showing the start of the trial. It appeared to feature the judge as a central figure.
Judge Makintach has denied wrongdoing. But Ferrari argued, “The situation compromises the prestige of the judiciary.”
It is unclear whether a new judge will replace Makintach in the coming months.
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