Diego Molina, a funeral worker, has been receiving death threats after his selfie with the dead body of Maradona went viral on social media. Molina, who was fired from his job after the insensitive selfie, was described as an outsourced employee by the funeral parlor.
The 60-year-old Argentinian football legend passed away due to a cardiac arrest. Maradona is due to be buried on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, in the same Jardin de Paz cemetery where his parents were also laid to rest.
Three Funeral Parlor Workers Clicked Picture With Maradona's Coffin
Molina was identified on Twitter soon after he posted the selfie. Dressed in a white shirt and black pants, the bald worker was seen with one hand placed on Maradona's forehead while giving a thumbs up with another hand. Daily Mail reported that Molina was one of the workers who was given the task of preparing Maradona's body prior to the private open-coffin wake for the family and friends. Another image that has gone viral on social media shows Molina standing up in a van leaving the morgue in Buenos Aires following an autopsy.
Apart from Molina, two other funeral workers had also clicked images with the body of the deceased legend. They are yet to be identified. One of the workers in the picture, which has a clear face of Maradona, seen signaling with a Thumbs up sign.
The manager of the Sepelios Pinier funeral parlor in Buenos Aires, Diego Picon, said that the three men were 'outsourced employees'. The pictures were taken before Maradona's body was sent to Argentina's presidential palace Casa Rosada.
"He [Molina] is not an employee here, he is a third party who only helped us load the coffin because it weighs a lot. The family chose a cedar [wood] box that is very difficult to transport and that is why we summoned him, just to carry the box," Picon told Metro.
Molina To Face Legal Action, Says Maradona's Lawyer
Revealing how they managed to click the pictures, the funeral parlor owner said that initially they had taken away their mobile phones in the morgue. "We gave them back when all the work had been finished and at that moment, which was when the police called me to organize the transfer, that's when they did it," he told the outlet.
Outraged over the insensitive actions of the funeral workers, Maradona's lawyer said that he would be taking legal action against Molina.
Matias Morla, who identified Molina on his Twitter account, wrote: "This is Diego Molina, the author of the photo taken beside Maradona's coffin. He's Pinier's head of burials. Diego Molina is the swine that took the picture of himself alongside Maradona. For the memory of my friend I am not going to rest until he pays for this aberration."
An angry Maradona fan tweeted, "I want this fat baldie who took a picture of himself by Diego's body dead. I want him dead. DEAD."
