The trial for the doctors that treated Diego Armando Maradona in his final days, suspects of negligent homicide, has been declared null after nearly three months. As expected, a new trial will have to start from scratch with three new judges, after one of them, judge Julieta Makintach, was removed from the trial earlier this week.
Makintach was found to be filming a documentary using secretly placed cameras in the court, behind everyone's backs (the other judges, lawyers, prosecutors, witnesses, defendants). She starred herself in the documentary, as "the judge of God". The documentary even had a corny working trailer, and it was called "Divine Justice".
Not only filming in the courtroom was unauthorised and against the law, it compromised the judge's expected neutrality. The lawyer of one of the defendants, surgeon Leopoldo Luque (who faces up to 26 years in prison for the death of the football star), said that she had already decided her verdict "a conviction is a better ending for a documentary, an acquittal doesn't sell".
A new trial may not start until 2026, and testimonies of almost 50 witnesses were scrapped. Veronica Ojeda, former Maradona's partner, said that "if I have to do it (testify) a thousand times more, I will." (via France24).
The Argentinian football player died of a heart attack in 2020. Judge Makintach faces now charges of influence peddling and possibly bribery.