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Three funeral workers were fired for posing for photos next to the body of soccer star Diego Maradona shortly before his funeral.
The images distributed on social media created outrage, including death threats, in a nation that revered Maradona, who died Wednesday of a heart attack at age 60. Tens of thousands lined up for a chance to parade in front of his body at the nation’s presidential palace on Friday (NZT).
Claudio Fernández confirmed to Radio Diez that he had lost his job at the Pinier funeral home, along with his son Ismael and Claudio Medina.
Massimo Sambucetti / AP
Argentine soccer superstar Diego Armando Maradona applauds after Napoli’s team claimed their first Italian Major League title in Naples in 1987.
One of the images shows Fernández and her son, smiling and thumbs up, next to Maradona’s body in the coffin on Friday. Medina appears in another in the same pose.
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Fernández insisted that he did not know that they planned to take a photograph, much less distribute it. “It was instantaneous. He had just raised his head and my son did it like any 18-year-old boy, ”he told the radio station.
AP
Diego Maradona’s chest was covered with the Argentine flag and the number 10 shirt he was wearing.
He said he had been receiving threats from other people who lived in the El Paternal neighborhood where Maradona made his professional debut in 1976 with the Argentinos Juniors team.
“They know me. I’m from the neighborhood,” Fernández said. “They say they’re going to kill us, break our heads.”
Mario De Fina / AP
The hearse that cares for Diego Maradona’s coffin leaves the Buenos Aires government house.
The team released a statement saying it was considering removing Fernández from its membership rosters.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
Mourners embrace as they wait to see Diego Maradona lying outside the presidential palace in Buenos Aires.
