The trial about Diego Maradona's death, with seven members of his medical staff accused of negligent homicide following his death in 2020, is at serious risk of being declared null, after one of the judges has been removed from the trial. The reason? She was secretly filming a documentary about the trial, with herself as protagonist, behind the backs of the two other judges, lawyers, prosecutors, defendants, and really anyone else, filmed secretly with cameras that nobody saw.
Suspicious about judge Julieta Makintach arose ten days ago, with serious evidence against her (including a trailer of the intended three-episode docuseries, titled "Divine Justice", that showed her entering in the tribunal building mixed with news about Maradona's death and suspicious around his medical team; the trailer ends with the phrase "the judge of God").
That trailer was shown in the courtroom on Tuesday to the disbelief and embarrassment of everyone in the room, and then all parties agreed on push Makintach from the trial because her integrity and neutrality was put into question. The judge said that was victim of a discredit campaign, but after four tense hours, as reported by El País, she accepted the decision. She will likely face charges of her own.
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"An embarrassment to the world": prosecutors and attorney agree on removing the judge
Julio Rivas, lawyer of brain surgeon Leopoldo Luque, the main suspect on Maradona's death, asked for Makintach's removal because of the judge's enquiring questions, acting as if she was "following a script" and questioning that her verdict would be influenced by the documentary she was starring in, because "a conviction a better ending for a documentary, an acquittal doesn't sell".
For once, attorneys and prosecutors agreed that she should be removed. Prosecutor Patricio Ferrari said that the judge was "acting as an actress, not as a judge". The general feeling is that this is an "embarrassment to the world", in the words Fernando Burlando, lawyer of two of the daughters the football star, Dalma and Gianinna.
"We've been evaluating what happens with the judge for 10 days, not what happened to Diego Armando Maradona's killers. We already saw mistreatment when his health was treated, and now we see mistreatment by the justice system toward him and his entire family", the lawyer said.
Now that one of the three judges of the trial has been removed, after almost three months, the most likely scenario is for the trial to be declared null, something that would benefit more the defendants, with Maradona's daughters wishing for the trial to be over as soon as possible. A decision will be announced on Thursday about whether the trial will continue or not.