Dubai: Three funeral home workers have been sacked after they posed for photos alongside the open coffin of Diego Maradona just before his funeral.
Maradona died on Thursday at the age of 60, after suffering a cardiac arrest at his home in the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
Claudio Fernández confirmed to a local radio station in Buenos Aires that he had lost his job at the funeral home, along with son Ismael and Diego Molina. One of the images shows Fernández and his son — smiling, with thumb raised — alongside the coffin. Medina appears in another image in the same pose.
“The workers were supposed to be preparing Maradona’s body for the wake when they instead stopped to pose for a picture with a thumbs-up next to the coffin. The owner of Sepelios Pinier funeral parlour in Buenos Aires told local media the three individuals were ‘outsourced employees’.
Claudio had to appeal for forgiveness after the images, that got circulated on social media, enraged Maradona fans who even gave him death threats.
“We were getting ready to take Diego to the wake and my son, being a typical youngster, made the thumbs-up sign and had his photo taken,” he told the radio station. ”I ask for everyone’s forgiveness. I’ve worked for Maradona’s father and his brother-in-law. I’ve been close to Diego while he was alive. I would never have disrespected him while he was alive because he was my idol and it was not my intention after he died.
“I know a lot of people have been very offended and have taken it badly. I know it upset them. I ask all of them to forgive us.”