Maradona's doctor investigated for involuntary manslaughter

Buenos Aires: Argentine police searched the home and office of Diego Maradona's personal doctor as part of investigations into the death of the 60-year-old football star, which caused a wave of grief across the country. He is under investigation for involuntary manslaughter.

Reporters saw several police officers stationed at the door of the offices of neurologist Dr. Leopoldo Luque in Buenos Aires' Belgrano neighborhood.

Court investigators have been taking declarations from Maradona's relatives, according to a statement from the San Isidro prosecutor's office, which is overseeing a probe into the medical attention Maradona received prior to his death on Wednesday.

It said investigators were trying to secure Maradona's medical records.

On November 11, Luque allowed Maradona to leave hospital eight days after undergoing brain surgery. At the time, the doctor published a photo of himself and his famous patient on Instagram, showing Maradona with a bandage on his head.

La Nacion reported that investigators were seeking to establish to what extent he was responsible for Maradona's care, and how often he went to check on his patient. Luque was not at Maradona's home at the time of his death, but he did place a call to emergency services. Local media outlet Opinion Frontal has released an audio clip of that recording, in which Luque is heard calling an ambulance.

Meanwhile, Luque gave an emotional response to the suspicions in a televised news conference, saying through tears: "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."

Maradona's personal doctor said that he had done "everything he could, up to the impossible" to save his "friend."

He also pointed to the fact that there should have been a defibrillator inside the soccer star's house as well as an ambulance parked outside, but that neither of those failures was up to him.

Luque declared his willingness to spontaneously give testimony in front of a judge even if he wasn't called in by investigators.