On Monday, a nurse accused of neglect in Diego Maradona‘s death told Argentine prosecutors that he was only following orders “not to disturb” the football icon while he slept. Ricardo Almiron, 37, was Maradona’s nighttime caretaker and was one of the last people to see the World Cup-winning captain alive. Maradona died of a heart attack last November at the age of 60, just weeks after undergoing brain surgery for a blood clot. 

Almiron is suspected of lying when he claimed Maradona was sleeping and breathing normally hours before he died, but an autopsy revealed that he was dying at that time. He is one of the seven people under investigation for manslaughter after a board of experts looking into Maradona’s death found he had received inadequate care and was abandoned to his fate for a “prolonged, agonizing period”.

Also read | Diego Maradona’s nurse first to face prosecution questions over his death 

After midday, Almiron arrived with his lawyer Franco Chiarelli at the San Isidro public prosecutor’s office. Speaking to journalists after the interview, Chiarelli said that Almiron always treated Maradona as a patient with a complex psychiatric condition but he was never told about the issue related to heart disease. “He was told by his superiors not to disturb the patient. My client had the wisdom to carry out his tasks without the patient feeling encroached upon, which was something he had to deal with the entire time he was there,” Chiarelli added.

An investigation was opened following a complaint filed by two of Maradona’s five children against neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, whom they blame for their father’s deteriorating condition after the operation. A panel of 20 medical experts was set up to examine the cause of Maradona’s death last month.

The public prosecutor said that his treatment was rife with “deficiencies and irregularities” and the medical team had left his survival “to fate”.The panel concluded he “would have had a better chance of survival” with adequate treatment in an appropriate medical facility. Instead of dying in his bed in a rented house, where he was receiving home care.

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Over the two weeks, the other six accused will appear one by one before the prosecutors, accompanied by defense lawyers, to reply to the allegations against them. Due to coronavirus, the hearings were postponed from last month, it will end with Luque, 39, on June 28.

All the seven accused are prohibited from leaving the country, and risk between eight and 25 years in prison if convicted. A judge will then decide whether the matter should go to trial in a process expected to last months, even years. 

Neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque defended his actions, saying “I did my best. I offered Diego everything I could: some things he accepted, others not.” he is seeking a dismissal of the case and said Maradona had been depressed in his final days. “I know that the (coronavirus) quarantine hit him very hard,” Luque has said.

 Also read | Argentine prosecutors probe Maradona death

The football legend had battled cocaine and alcohol addictions during his life. The former Boca Juniors, Barcelona, and Napoli star was suffering from liver, kidney, and cardiovascular disorders when he died.

Maradona is an idol to millions of Argentines after he took the South American country to only their second World Cup triumph in 1986.

His death shocked fans around the world, and tens of thousands queued to file past his coffin, draped in the Argentine flag, at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires amid three days of national mourning.