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Maradona's death investigated by Argentine prosecutors

Argentine justice officials are investigating the death of Diego Maradona and ordered the search of properties of his personal doctor on Sunday, a local prosecutor's office said.

Maradona died at age 60 of a heart attack on Wednesday. The search order was requested by prosecutors in the affluent Buenos Aires suburb San Isidro and signed by a local judge, according to a statement issued by the prosecutor's office.

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The statement read: "Yesterday [Saturday] the investigation and substantiation of evidence continued with the taking of statements from people including direct relatives of the deceased.

"By virtue of the evidence that was collected, it was considered necessary to request searches at the home and office of doctor Leopoldo Luque."

The prosecutor's office provided no information about what prompted the investigation.

Maradona's lawyer, Matias Morla, on Thursday said he would ask for a full investigation of the circumstances of the footballing legend's death, criticising what he said was a slow response by emergency service.

"The ambulance took more than half an hour to arrive, which was a criminal idiocy," Matias said on Thursday in a Twitter post.

However, Luque has disputed this claim and said the ambulance took around 12 minutes to arrive.

"They took the clinical files," Luque told local television. "There was no medical error."

Luque added that he not responsible for the death of the soccer player who catapulted to international fame after leading the Argentine team that won the 1986 World Cup.

Maradona had suffered a series of medical problems, some due to excesses of drugs and alcohol. He was reportedly near death in 2000 and 2004.

Luque said he was a difficult patient and had kicked the doctor out of his house several times.

"Diego did what he wanted," Luque said. "Diego needed help. There was no way of getting through to him."

Information from Reuters and the Associated Press was used in this story.

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