Maradona's doctor denies responsibility for legend's death

BUENOS AIRES - Diego Maradona's personal doctor has denied responsibility for the death of the Argentinian football legend after police searched his house and clinic on Sunday.

"I feel terrible because my friend has died," Leopoldo Luque told reporters outside his Buenos Aires home. "I'm not the one who is responsible for all of this."

"I know what I did with Diego and I know how I did it. I can explain it all. I'm absolutely certain I did the best that could have been done for Diego."

Police seized laptops, medical records and mobile devices during the three-hour raid, part of a probe to determine whether there was negligence on the part of the physician.

Maradona died of a heart attack at his home near Buenos Aires on Wednesday, less than a month after undergoing surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain.

"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," Luque said, adding that Maradona was not under his care after he left hospital on November 12.

"If you ask me, I'm a neurosurgeon and my job ended. I was done with him. He [Maradona] should have gone to a rehabilitation centre. He didn't want to."

Earlier, investigators said the search was ordered by a judge following preliminary investigations, which included evidence from Maradona's daughters Dalma, Giannina and Jana.

"By virtue of the evidence that was collected, it was considered necessary to request searches at the home and office of doctor Leopoldo Luque," a statement from the local prosecutor's office said.

Argentina's state news agency Telam said investigators were trying to establish if Maradona had received 24-hour care from medical staff in the days before his death, one of the conditions of his discharge from hospital.

On Thursday, Maradona's lawyer Matias Morla called for a probe of the 1986 FIFA World Cup winner's death, citing an alleged delayed response from emergency services.