Argentine Court Wants To Preserve Diego Maradona's Body

JAKARTA - The body of the late soccer legend Diego Maradona must be preserved if his DNA is needed in an inheritance case, according to an Argentine court ruling on Thursday.

Maradona died of a heart attack last month and is buried outside Buenos Aires on November 26.

Maradona's lawyers previously told Reuters that DNA samples were present, the court said the body of the former Boca Juniors and Napoli player could not be cremated.

Maradona has five recognized children and six others who asked to be tested for DNA as part of a complex inheritance sharing process in Argentina.

One of the six children is 25-year-old Magalí Gil, who found out two years ago that he was the biological son of the legendary footballer.

"Mrs. Gil requested that the test be carried out ... and for this purpose the prosecutor's office sent a DNA sample," said National Court of First Instance for Civil Affairs No. 56 reported from Antara, Thursday.

Maradona himself only recognized four children in Argentina and one in Italy, which he had while playing in that country.