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Maradona must stay in clinic, says judge

May 15, 2004 11:01 IST
Diego Maradona cannot leave the clinic where he is being treated for cocaine addiction until a court says so, the judge overseeing his case decided on Friday.

Judge Norberto Garcia Vedia visited Maradona at the private psychiatric clinic where his family admitted him against his will last week, and determined he was not fit to decide whether to discharge himself.

"He is no condition to decide for now," Garcia Vedia told Reuters Television. "He is suffering a crisis."

Maradona's family transferred him on Sunday from an intensive care ward where he was treated for heart and lung problems to the Clinica Privada for drug addiction

treatment.

His family doctor has described Maradona's treatment as a "last chance" to kick his cocaine habit. Maradona, 43, has spent most of the past four years living at a spa in Cuba where he has been undergoing a drugs rehabilitation program.

While on a visit to Argentina last month, he was rushed to hospital with a swollen heart and breathing problems and he spent two weeks in intensive care, including a week on an artificial respirator.

After a slow recovery, he suddenly discharged himself only to be seen playing golf hours later. Within days he was back in hospital with breathing problems.

Source: REUTERS
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