Police register property of people who took photos with Maradona dead

The Prosecutor’s Office of the City of Buenos Aires together with the capital police carried out three simultaneous searches on Friday against the three people who were photographed with the body of Diego Maradona, sources of the investigation informed Efe.

The three former employees of the Sepelios Pinier funeral home, which took care of the body of the soccer star, who died at the age of 60 on Wednesday, will be summoned to testify by the Prosecutor’s Office but were not arrested because the alleged crimes committed are not criminal.

The Criminal, Misconduct and Misdemeanor Prosecutor’s Office Number 25 of Buenos Aires will cite them in principle for alleged desecration of a corpse and it is possible that they will also be accused of violation of “very personal rights.”

Investigation

The publication of photographs by employees with the body of Maradona is being investigated, images that were taken before the body of the ex-footballer left for the Casa Rosada, where he was veiled, and that went around the world on Thursday.

The original photographs show the lifeless body of Maradona, which has not been seen in any other way since the coffin remained closed during the wake.

During the searches against these three people, the Police seized three mobile phones, a laptop, a USB stick and several shirts that matched the clothes that those investigated were wearing at the time of taking the photos.

The searches were carried out in a private house, a garage – where documentary information was seized – and the place where they prepared Maradona’s body, where they analyzed the place from which the images were taken and where forensic analyzes were carried out.

All the dependencies in which the Prosecutor’s Office and the Police acted are located in the Buenos Aires sector of La Paternal.

The sources consulted detailed that the day on which they will be summoned will not be revealed because the defendants, who face financial fines and 2 to 10 days of arrest, fear for their safety.

This same Friday, one of the former employees of the funeral home, a 48-year-old man named Claudio who appears in one of the photos along with his 18-year-old son and Maradona’s body, apologized publicly on a radio program local.

Claudio detached the company from responsibility and said that he receives telephone threats from a group of fans of the Argentinos Juniors club, where Maradona made his debut and which is also the neighborhood club where they worked.

“We were already getting ready to take it. And they call me skinny, and my son, like every kid, raised his finger and took the photo. I ask everyone for respect and forgiveness. Look, I did the service to Maradona’s father and brother-in-law, and I never did. I was with Maradona close in life. I did not do it in life knowing that he is my idol, I will not do it after death. It was not my intention. I know that many people have been offended and have taken it the wrong way, ”he declared on Radio 10.

Claudio said that he was fired from the Pinier Sepelios company, where he had worked for seven years, and that the funeral home is a company that has worked with the entire Maradona family.

“I am receiving threats, because they know me, I am from the neighborhood. People who annoyed him. That they are going to kill us, that they are going to break my truck. My children… ”, said Claudio. “I don’t want to throw anything on them who are defending an idol,” he added.

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