The former manager of Diego Maradona said this Thursday (07/02/2026) at his death trial that the football star would never have agreed to be in a house where home confinement was ordered, which ended with his death in 2020 in Argentina.
Lawyer Matias Morla, one of the people closest to the former Argentine footballer, assured in his testimony that if Maradona had been healthy, “he would not have spent 30 seconds” in the house in the town of Tigre in the north of Buenos Aires, where he was recovering from neurosurgery.
He remained there until he died of pulmonary edema and cardiovascular arrest on November 25, 2020.
The process taking place in the city of San Ysidro evaluates the relevance and conditions of home confinement, as well as the responsibility of the medical team responsible for his care.
Like other witnesses before him, Morla noted that the room in which Maradona stayed “was furnished very precariously” and that the house “had neither equipment nor an ambulance” in case of an emergency.
While Maradona was alive, Morla ran the business and hired employees to service the former footballer. However, he assured that this will not affect house arrest in any way.
“We all trusted (private healthcare company) Swiss Medical.”
“We all trust the doctors or (private healthcare company) Swiss Medical. It’s an excellent prepaid plan, we paid one of the highest plans, we all stayed calm,” said Morla, who had broad powers over the administration and disposal of Maradona’s assets.
“The daughters, despite our differences, also trusted the doctors,” added Morla, whom they publicly accused of controlling the actions of the doctors.
The lawyer was one of the few witnesses who spoke well of neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luca, Maradona’s trusted doctor and the main accused in his death.
“Diego loved Luque, he had enormous confidence in him,” he said.
Luka and six other medical workers are charged with murder with possible malice. This figure implies that they were aware that their actions or inactions could lead to the death of the former footballer. Everyone protests their innocence.
The accused – nurses, doctors and a psychologist – face 25 years in prison. An eighth defendant, a nurse, will be tried in a separate trial.
jc (afp, efe)