7 to be charged with premeditated murder of Diego Maradona: report

Seven people involved in caring for soccer legend Diego Maradona before his death are being charged with his premeditated murder, according to stunning reports Thursday.

The Argentinian player‘s death in November initially sparked a manslaughter probe — but was upgraded to murder after a damning investigation showed his care was “plagued by deficiencies and irregularities,” officials told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The “signs of life risk” were ignored by his health team, who instead left Maradona to his fate for a “prolonged, agonizing period” before he succumbed, the medical board investigation concluded, according to the outlet.

“After so many injustices, the case has come full circle,” a source from the San Isidro Attorney General’s Office told AFP.

Among the seven being charged is Leopoldo Luque, who performed brain surgery on the 60-year-old star to remove a blood clot less than two weeks before his Nov. 25 death, the outlet reported.

Psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov and psychologist Carlos Diaz are also among the charged, AFP said. The Sun named the other five as nurses Ricardo Omar Almiron, 37 and Dahiana Gisela Madrid, 36; nursing team co-ordinator Mariano Perroni, 40; and 52-year-old doctor Nancy Forlini.

They face eight to 25 years in prison if found guilty, according to the AFP report, which offered no motive for the crime.

All are reportedly prohibited from leaving the country and must appear ahead of an inquiry between May 31 and June 14.

The death of Maradona — deemed by many the greatest soccer player of all time — sparked nationwide mourning in Argentina as well as fans of the beautiful game across the world.

The legal proceedings were prompted by a complaint filed by two of Maradona’s five daughters against Luque, who they blamed for their father’s deteriorating condition after the brain surgery.

After his offices were raided, Luque insisted in a tearful news conference that he was being made a “scapegoat” and that there “was no medical error” in his op.

“You want to know what I am responsible for? For having loved him, for having taken care of him, for having extended his life, for having improved it to the end,” the doctor said at the time.

He insisted he did “everything he could, up to the impossible” and considered himself a “friend” of Maradona and saw him “as a father, not as a patient.”

However, the medical board investigation concluded that the star’s carers acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless manner” and left him “to his own devices.”