A tense hearing on Tuesday put the trial over the death of Argentine football icon Diego Maradona at risk of yet another setback, as prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed that evidence presented by one of the witnesses should be excluded to avoid the possibility of a new mistrial.
The dispute centered on the testimony and evidence submitted by medical examiner Mariana Flichman, who prepared Maradona’s discharge paperwork from the Olivos Clinic.
Prosecutor Patricio Ferrari told the judge he and his team were “previously unaware” that Flichman had written the document.
It also emerged that Flichman had served both as a “patient risk and claims manager” at Swiss Medical, Maradona’s healthcare provider, and as an expert witness for defendant Nancy Forlini, a coordinator at the medical services company, during the medical board proceedings that determined the cause of Maradona’s death.
Ferrari asked the court to exclude Flichman’s report from the case file, arguing that the newly disclosed details of her employment relationship with the healthcare provider called her impartiality into question and could have biased her findings.
