Maradona's doctor claims innocence at trial over footballer's death

Diego Maradona's personal physician, facing a second trial over the 2020 death of the football legend, told a court on Thursday that he was innocent of the charges against him.

"I want to say that I am innocent and that I deeply regret his death," neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque said of Maradona's death at age 60, as he recovered at home from surgery for a brain clot.

Luque is on trial with six other medical professionals, accused of gross negligence causing Maradona's death.

The larger-than-life footballer died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema – a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs – two weeks after going under the knife.

The first trial over his death was sensationally annulled last year after two-and-a-half months, following revelations that one of the judges took part in a clandestine documentary about the case.

The new trial in the northern Buenos Aires suburb of San Isidro, near where Maradona died, began on Tuesday with a new three-judge panel.

Prosecutor Patricio Ferrari has accused Maradona's medical team of being a "bunch of amateurs" who committed "all kinds of omissions," resulting in conditions he described as "cruel."

The accused argue that the hard-living Maradona, who battled cocaine and alcohol addictions, died of natural causes.

The defendants risk prison terms of between eight and 25 years if convicted.