A judge has granted the request that Diego Maradona’s two iPhones should be accessed as the investigation into the athlete's death widens, Marca newspaper reported without citing any sources. Sputnik was unable to verify the claim. Judge Orlando Diaz allowed prosecutors to examine the devices to see whether the late football icon complained or expressed concern about his health before his death. The investigation will also reveal who Maradona was in contact with in the days before his death.
The announcement came as three more individuals were added to the investigation. They are: psychologist Carlos Diaz, who was treating Maradona for depression and anxiety, and nurses Dahiana Madrid and Ricardo Almiron, who cared for him after surgery.
Almiron has already said he left the home where Maradona was sleeping at 6:30 am. And Dahiana Madrid said she checked on the athlete early in the morning, but later retracted her statement, saying she was told to lie by the medical firm Medidom, for which she works.
What Are the Allegations?
Although the post-mortem has revealed that the football legend did not consume alcohol or illegal drugs in the days before he died, an investigation has been launched into the circumstances surrounding his death. Maradona’s lawyer Matias Morla criticised the slow response of first aid (it took half an hour for an ambulance to arrive), and the athlete’s daughters were concerned that he de did not receive proper medical care.
Police raided the homes of Maradona’s personal doctor and neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque as well as psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, who also treated the football star. They were accused of manslaughter caused by medical negligence. Both men deny wrongdoing.
Luque said he has nothing to hide and said that he is proud of the treatment he gave.
"We were all gathered to do the best for Diego: the doctors, myself, his family. Nothing could be done without his will. We sought to put together a containment scheme to issue the pills he was taking and to control alcohol consumption," said Luque, adding that the surgery the athlete recently underwent had nothing to do with his death. "I had the full endorsement of the Argentine Society of Neurosurgery that Diego needed the surgery. Six doctors evaluated him."
Phones confiscated by police revealed that Luque sent messages to Cosachov on the day Maradona died.
"Let me know if they're annoyed with us," Luque reportedly wrote when Cosachov messaged him that attempts to revive the football star were failing.
In another message leaked by Argentine news website Infobae, Luque described Maradona as a "fatso", who was going to "s**t himself to death".
