Was Diego Maradona murdered? Football icon's son's lawyer claims his death was 'manslaughter' that was 'proven'
The lawyer of Diego Maradona's eight-year-old son has insisted that the cause of death of the football legend was manslaughter and it was "proven". Acting for the young Diego Fernando, the lawyer Mario Baudry claimed: "In any country, with other prosecutors, people would be in prison by now."
Baudry, in a heated exchange with the legal representative of Maradona’s lawyer Matias Morla, on Argentinian TV said, "That's not the case," when Morla insisted that Maradona died due to natural causes. "Manslaughter has been proven. The longer this goes on, the more the evidence gets diluted," he said, according to a report by The US Sun.
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Was Diego Maradona murdered?
Baudry also added that the victim shouldn't be investigated. "I’m against it. He was an ill man suffering from abstinence, an alcoholic who was also taking drugs," he shared before adding, “They open his phones up three months after his death. Why so long?”
The site also added that the lawyer was afraid that Maradona "hangers-on" could have robbed much of his estimated £75million ($104million) fortune. Baudry claimed: "There’s been talk of £75million but only just over £4m ($5.5m) has appeared in bank accounts along with a small apartment, an old house Diego owned, and two cars. Diego earned a lot of money but the problem is he didn’t have it."
Baudry is currently dating Diego Fernando's mother and Maradona's ex, Veronica Ojeda.
Five people have been placed under investigation following the star footballer's death in November last year. Maradona's personal physician Leopoldo Luque was one of the five and has denied wrongdoing. Despite Baudry's strong claims, no official charges have been made yet.
According to multiple reports, he suffered a heart attack two weeks after leaving the hospital where he underwent surgery on a blood clot in his brain. Widely regarded as one of the GOATs to play the game, his illustrious career saw him help Argentina clinch the World Cup in 1986. The news of his death was broken by the Argentinian news outlet, Clarin, which said the news of his death was having a "worldwide impact".
Prior to his death, Maradona left the hospital on November 11 after spending eight days there for emergency brain surgery. According to Daily Mail, he had driven away from the Olivos clinic just before 6 pm that day. His lawyer Matias Morla had said that the iconic player would continue to receive treatment for alcohol dependency, according to the site. Maradona was expected to stay in a house nearby with his daughters.
The legend was known across the world for having an extravagant and wild lifestyle during his playing years and he even underwent a gastric bypass to lose some weight in 2005. Two years ago he was hospitalized for alcohol-induced hepatitis and was also ill during the last Football World Cup in Russia.