The Japan Times - Tearful fights, edible offerings: A glimpse into the Maradona trial

Legal proceedings have been ongoing since April over allegations that negligence by seven medical workers contributed to the Argentine star's death in 2020.

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

The trial was supposed to conclude in August, but almost 70 witness and defendant statements and over 25 hearings later, it remains uncertain when the legal psychodrama will end.

The defendants, who insist Maradona died of natural causes, have spent months in a courtroom alongside the footballer's distraught daughters.

As proceedings enter yet another month, AFP takes a look at the standout moments of the often dramatic case.

- Diligent defendant -

Maradona's personal doctor Leopoldo Luque -- the main accused, since he was viewed by many as being in charge at the time -- has adopted a meticulous strategy as a defendant.

He has attended every single hearing, taking the stand every time he feels a statement implicates him.

The doctor has already racked up nine interventions, during which he plays audio recordings, presents scientific papers and points out what he views as contradictions.

He once even instructed his own lawyer about how to connect a HDMI cable to show the autopsy of Maradona.

Luque's team succeeded in showing the footage, which subsequently rattled Maradona's daughter, who yelled curses at the defendant and fled the room in tears.

Her lawyer followed his client and the hearing was suspended.

Luque claims he hadn't realized she was there, but the Maradona family says they don't believe him.

- Childish lawyers -

Judges have often had to act as a different kind of referee when attendees get tangled up in heated disputes.

"It's impossible to stop them like children, all the time," said Judge Alberto Gaig following one particularly thorny debate between legal representatives.

But the rivalry between the lawyer of Maradona's daughters, Fernando Burlando, and that of the defendants, Francisco Oneto, is proving impossible to resolve.

Burlando once told his counterpart to "go back to elementary school."

The remark earned an equally childish snub from Oneto, who told his foe to "pick up a dictionary."

Their bickering even led to the suspension of one hearing, but that didn't stop the pair from hurling expletives at each other outside the courtroom in front of other lawyers, police officers and journalists.

- Eating your feelings -

Others have tried to ease tensions with edible gifts.

One chilly June morning, a defense attorney entered the courtroom hauling a huge bag that was full to the brim with "alfajores," traditional Argentine sweets.

One month earlier, another brought Paraguayan cheese rolls known as "chipas" from his wife's bakery.

The gesture proved a business-savvy move when attorneys from both legal teams followed her brand on Instagram.

- Miniature home -

To the surprise of many, a miniature model of the house where Maradona died has become a centerpiece of the trial.

University of Belgrano students built the replica of the footballer's home in the town of Tigre, north of Buenos Aires.

Measuring roughly two-by-one meters (six-by-three feet), the mock-up is heavy enough to require four people to carry it to and fro whenever a witness needs to point at different parts of the building.

- Retake -

The wacky intricacies of the proceedings are all surpassed by the oddest detail of all: the fact that the trial should have been completed last year.

The first iteration was thrown when it emerged that one of the presiding judges, Julieta Makintach, was secretly taking part in a documentary about the celebrity case.

Y.Watanabe--JT