Medical staff to face trial over Diego Maradona's death


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Eight medical personnel are set to stand trial for alleged criminal negligence that led to Argentine football great Diego Maradona's death while receiving post-surgery care.

A judge in Argentina on Wednesday ordered a culpable homicide trial for the eight, including Maradona's family doctor and nurses, based on evidence that they had failed to take "action that could have prevented the death" in November 2020.

No trial date has been set. Maradona died aged 60 while recovering from brain surgery for a blood clot. He was found dead two weeks after going under the knife, in a rented house in Buenos Aires where he was brought after being discharged from hospital.

A panel of 20 medical experts convened by Argentina's public prosecutor concluded last year that Maradona's treatment had "deficiencies and irregularities." It said the footballer "would have had a better chance of survival" with adequate treatment in an appropriate medical facility.

Brain surgeon Leopoldo Luque and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov are among those who will stand trial for homicide, the judge ruled. The trial is not expected to begin until the end of 2023 or early 2024.

Argentine prosecutors launched investigations shortly after Maradona's death, including ordering searches of properties of his personal doctor and probing others involved in his care.

The defendants have denied responsibility for Maradona's death. The judge said that lawyers for some of them had requested the case be dismissed.

Vadim Mischanchuk, an attorney for Cosachov, said they would appeal the decision, adding the psychiatrist's area of care had no relation with Maradona's cause of death.

"A guilty party is being sought at all costs and objectivity is being lost," the lawyer said.

Maradona is widely considered one of the greatest footballers of all time. He led Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup and enjoyed a successful club career that spanned more than 20 years. He also had various short-term spells in management around the world, including with the Argentina national team, whom he led to the 2010 World Cup, and in the UAE with Al Wasl and Fujairah.

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The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.

"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."

Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.

"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.

As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general. 

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Updated: June 23, 2022, 4:41 AM