In a fresh twist, seven people have been placed under formal investigation for manslaughter in the death of Diego Maradona.

According to an espn.com report, all seven are medical professionals and have been charged with “simple homicide with eventual intent”.

If proven guilty, the accused, who include Maradona’s neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov and psychologist Carlos Diaz, potentially face eight to 25 years in prison.

The prosecutors’ office in San Isidro, Argentina, have requested the judge that those individuals indicted not be permitted to leave the country.

Maradona died at the age of 60 on November 25, 2020, from heart failure, two weeks after undergoing brain surgery. Luque was the one who performed the brain operation on Maradona.

The espn.com report said that audio of private conversations between doctors and people from Maradona’s entourage were leaked to the media and have indicated that Maradona was not being properly looked after prior to his death.

The prosecutors’ office appointed a medical board to determine if there was evidence of culpable homicide from Maradona’s medical team.

The board revealed in a report that the medical team who attended Maradona prior to his death acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless manner” and left him “to his own devices.”

Maradona’s autopsy determined that he died in his sleep of acute pulmonary edema, a build-up of fluid in the lungs, because of congestive heart failure.

The accused will begin to testify from May 31.