“Justice is not stained”: The trial for the death of Diego Armando Maradona is declared null

The trial against the medical staff of Diego Armando Maradona was declared null this Thursday in Buenos Aires after it was discovered that a judge involved in the case had participated in a documentary about the same legal process.

The trial had started on March 11 at the San Isidro Courts, in the northern area of Greater Buenos Aires, and, after the testimony of about 50 people, it will have to start again, with no set date or new court at the moment.

Why was Maradona’s trial declared null and void?

The decision to start over from scratch was made by the judges Maximiliano Savarino and Verónica Di Tommaso, after the disqualification and resignation of the magistrate Julieta Makintach, who was the protagonist of a documentary called “Justicia Divina” about the case without any consent.

According to the Argentine newspaper Olé, Judge Di Tommaso reformulated Maradona’s famous phrase “the ball is not stained” to express regret over what happened. “There was a person who made a mistake and paid for it, is paying for it, and will surely continue to explain, but it is not the Justice, and Justice is not stained,” she stated in front of the seven accused individuals and the family members of the man considered the greatest player in the history of soccer.

“The judge saying ‘Justice is not stained,’ looking at Maradona’s daughters, is a joke,” neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, who is one of the seven accused, said to La Nación, in his case for simple homicide with eventual intent."

Earlier this week, prosecutor Patricio Ferrari accused Makintach of behaving “like an actress and not like a judge” after she participated in a documentary about the case.

Makintach resigned this week after violating judicial norms.

Maradona, a football legend, was recovering at his home in Buenos Aires from a brain surgery for a blood clot in November 2020 when he died of a heart attack at the age of 60.