An Argentine judge has upheld charges against five people in connection with the death of Liam Payneformer member of the musical group One directionand ordered preventive prison for two of them for supplying him with drugs.
A court official on Monday upheld the judge’s decision and said one of the two people ordered to be placed in pretrial detention – a form of pre-trial detention – was an employee of the Buenos Aires hotel where Payne remained until ‘on his death after fall from her bedroom balcony in October.
The officer said the other person was a waiter Payne met at a restaurant. The officer, who asked not to be identified as a condition of speaking about the decision, said both were facing drug supply charges and were expected to appear before the judge.
Receive national news daily
Get the day’s top news, politics, business and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day.
The judge also charged three other people with manslaughter, including a businessman who was with Payne in Argentina and two hotel managers. The official said they had not been ordered to be placed in preventive prison.
In November, prosecutors filed initial charges against three peoplebut they did not reveal their names.
Payne fell from the balcony of his room on the third floor of his hotel in the upscale Palermo district of the Argentine capital. His autopsy revealed that he died from multiple injuries and external bleeding.
Prosecutors also said Payne’s toxicology exams showed his body had “traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescribed antidepressant” moments before his death.
Payne’s autopsy showed that his injuries were caused neither by self-harm nor by the physical intervention of others. The document also specifies that he did not have the reflex to protect himself during the fall, which suggests that he could have been unconscious.
Argentinian prosecutors also ruled out the possibility that Payne committed suicide.
One Direction were one of the most successful boy bands of recent times. He announced an indefinite hiatus in 2016 and Payne – like his former bandmates Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson – pursued a solo career.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
