BUENOS AIRES — A court in Argentina on Tuesday started its trial of seven healthcare professionals accused of negligence in the 2020 death of football superstar Diego Maradona.

Maradona, aged 60, was under the care of the seven when he had a cardiac arrest in a house outside Buenos Aires on 25 November 2020.

Three judges will decide whether those charged, including a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist and several medical staffers, are guilty of manslaughter. The maximum jail time for those sentenced is 25 years.

According to the prosecutors, Maradona's team didn't provide adequate medical care.

Prosecutor Patricio Ferrari claims evidence goes to show that between 11 and 15 November 2020, Maradona was taken to a house in a private neighborhood in the town of Tigre, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, while not in "full use of his mental faculties" — meaning, he wasn't capable of deciding on home hospitalization.

Ferrari said it was a reckless decision in which there was no control.

"After condemning him to oblivion in that house ... they deliberately and cruelly decided that he should die," he said.

The prosecutor showed an image of the former football star lying in the bed where he was found dead with his abdomen visibly swollen.

The tearful family of the 1986 World Cup winner were present at the courtroom. Maradona's oldest daughters, Dalma and Giannina, sat in the front row near Verónica Ojeda, former partner of the footballer, and Jana, another of his daughters.

Minutes before the start of the trial, Ojeda shared a video on social media of Maradona's son Diego Fernando wearing a T-shirt with the face of the football star and the word "justice".

The trial could last up to four months, and there will be three weekly hearings. After more than three months and around 110 witnesses, the prosecution and the defense will make their cases, and the court will set a date for a verdict. None of the defendants will likely be detained before or during the trial.

The main defendant is neurosurgeon Leonardo Luque, Maradona's personal physician for the last four years of his life. He performed surgery to remove a blood clot from the former footballer's brain just weeks before his death.

Six other professionals will be on trial, including psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, who prescribed the medication that Maradona took until the time of his death, Nancy Forlini, a coordinator of the medical company hired for Maradona's care during his hospitalisation, and Dr Pedro Di Spagna, who monitored his treatment.

Gisela Madrid, a nurse who was also indicted, will be tried by a jury later this year.

All eight medical professionals deny any wrongdoing. They described Maradona as a difficult patient who resisted treatment.

“The death occurred unexpectedly, suddenly, during sleeping hours, without offering us any time,” said Luque. The defense commissioned its own forensic study to support its claim that Maradona’s death “was sudden and without agony".

Luque stressed that it was Maradona himself who insisted on home hospitalization.

Maradona secluded himself during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, as his chronic health problems made him more vulnerable to becoming infected and more likely to become severely ill.

The isolation unleashed depression and anxiety for the superstar in early 2020, according to hundreds of pages of court documents seen by media outlets prior to the trial. Maradona turned to alcohol, a vice that had long played a role in his troubled legacy.

As Maradona’s trusted doctor, Luque conducted a series of medical tests and discovered a subdural hematoma, or bleeding around the brain.

After emergency surgery, Maradona left the hospital and headed to a rented home near his older daughters. Doctors encouraged him to pursue treatment for his alcoholism at a clinic, but Maradona would accept nothing but outpatient care.

Widely perceived as one of the sport's greatest players, Maradona famously led Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup and inspired his compatriots with a rags-to-riches story that vaulted him from poverty in the hardscrabble outskirts of Buenos Aires to international reverence.

In Italy's southern city of Naples, he had endeared himself to the local fans of SSC Napoli, who venerate him as a saint to this day.

However, Maradona had publicly struggled with drug addiction, obesity and alcoholism for decades and reportedly came close to death in 2000 and 2004. — Euronews