Several people have reportedly been charged in connection with the death of One Direction star Liam Payne in Argentina.
The Argentine online newspaper Infobae published that five people have been charged by a judge and two have been placed in preventive detention.
The site claims that one of the accused is Liam’s friend Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores, who said he dropped the singer off at the CasaSur Palermo hotel about an hour before he fell to his death.
Infobae He reported that the authorities have accused him of negligent homicide.
Braian Paiz, a bartender who admitted to using drugs, including cocaine, with the singer, was charged with supplying narcotics in exchange for payment.
CasaSur employee Ezequiel Pereyra was also charged with drug supply.
Hotel managers Gilda Martín and Esteban Grassi have reportedly been charged with involuntary manslaughter. All five have been summoned to appear in court.
The One Direction star died on October 16 after falling from the third-floor balcony of the CasaSur Palermo hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was 31 years old.
His death shocked the world and raised questions about how he had fallen.
Liam Payne’s last Snapchat post before falling to his death from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires
Roger Nores has denied being responsible for the death of One Direction singer Liam Payne, claiming the star was “playful” in the hours before his death.
A drone view shows the balcony of the CasaSur Hotel from where Payne fell to his death
Photo released by the Buenos Aires Police that shows a television with a broken screen and a half-full glass of champagne in the hotel room
Forensic investigators leave the hotel where the former One Direction singer was found dead after falling from a balcony in Buenos Aires
Police launched a wide-ranging investigation into his death and Nores previously denied being a suspect.
A 911 call on the day of the singer’s death warned that he had been acting aggressively and may have been under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Grassi, the front desk manager, claimed Liam called “persistently” to order alcohol and ask where he could get cocaine, allegedly insulting a member of staff who said he couldn’t help.
In addition to this, text messages were allegedly exchanged between Liam and a female companion offering her $5,000 (£3,900) to “party”.
It came as reports suggested a psychiatrist had emailed Nores to inform him it was “impossible” to continue supporting Liam with his mental health and warn him about the risks associated with mixing antidepressants and alcohol.
The alleged dealers Braian Nahuel Paiz and Ezequiel David Pereyra, a former employee of the Buenos Aires hotel, said they “preserve their right to remain silent” during a previous hearing before Laura Bruniard.
Following a police investigation, both defendants were charged with the crime of supplying narcotics in exchange for remuneration, which could carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
Braian had told an Argentine television journalist last month that he had used marijuana and that the former One Direction star snorted cocaine during a date at the Hotel CasaSur Palermo, where Payne was staying shortly before his death.
A photo showing Braian Nahuel Paiz with Liam Payne, supposedly during their first arranged meeting at a hotel.
Paiz has admitted to having had two meetings in a hotel with the 31-year-old.
Nores reportedly met Liam Payne in 2020 and were photographed with him in Argentina before the singer died.
Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson in 2013
But Braian insisted in his interview with Guillermo Panizza on Telefe Noticias: ‘I never drugged him or accepted money.’
Pereyra, 21, identified locally as the hotel worker suspected of delivering drugs to Liam in a Dove soap box, has so far made no public comment since it emerged he had been placed under formal investigation.
Nores told a TMZ documentary examining Payne’s death that he was “in good spirits and perfectly poised” on the day of his death, while refuting claims that the singer was intoxicated and acting erratically shortly before his fatal death. fall on October 16 from the third-floor balcony of his hotel.
The businessman, who is fighting accusations that he abandoned his friend before his death amid claims he was Payne’s “de facto” manager, has previously protested his innocence after being named locally as one of the men under investigation.
She said in a statement last month: “I never left Liam, I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened.”
‘There were over 15 people in the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left.
“I never would have imagined something like this would happen.
‘I gave my statement to the prosecutor on October 17 as a witness and since then I have not spoken to any police officer or prosecutor.
‘I wasn’t Liam’s manager. He was just my very dear friend.
Grassi and Martin have been identified as two of three men photographed carrying the singer back to his room from his hotel lobby shortly before his fall.
The head receptionist, who made an emergency 911 call moments before the 31-year-old singer died, has not made any public comments since he was named as one of the suspects.
Tests have shown that the singer consumed alcohol and cocaine before he died and also had traces of an antidepressant in his system.
Funeral directors place a floral tribute reading ‘Dad’ outside the funeral of One Direction singer Liam Payne.
Liam Payne and Roger Nores appear here in West Hollywood in June of this year.
Payne photographed at Kiss FM Studio’s on September 3, 2019
Liam Payne (left) and Kate Cassidy attending the Fashion Awards 2022
Prosecutors also made clear that the idea that Liam had committed suicide had been ruled out, saying he was in a state of “partial or complete unconsciousness” when he fell from his hotel balcony to his death when he “did not know what was happening.” doing”. .’
They said of the hotel worker and the alleged ‘drug dealer’: ‘The second suspect is a hotel employee who must answer for two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the time he was at the hotel.
“The third is also a drug dealer who is being investigated on suspicion of two other clearly proven cocaine supplies at two different times on October 14.”
The recent publication of Liam’s last photo, showing him being carried back to his room from his hotel lobby shortly before his fall by three men, said to be Grassi, has led to speculation in the media. Argentines that the judicial investigation could eventually turn into an involuntary manslaughter investigation.
Horrified tourist Bret Watson, who saw Liam fall to his death, previously revealed to TMZ that the tragedy will forever be “etched in his brain.”
It comes after Liam’s girlfriend reportedly agreed to be interviewed by Argentine police as they continue their investigation into the pop star’s tragic death.
Kate Cassidy was with Payne just two days before he died when he fell from the third floor of a Buenos Aires hotel on October 16.
The 25-year-old is not under investigation for any crime; instead, he will provide a witness statement to give police insight into Payne’s final days.
In words reported by the Daily Mirror, a source claimed that Cassidy is speaking to police because “he wants the right people to be brought to justice.”
The source said: “She is going to help in any way she can, she wants the right people to be brought to justice, and if that requires her to answer their questions she will do so.”
“Obviously there is no reason for her not to cooperate, she tried for a long time to help him get clean and she is still haunted by what happened.” Anyone who supplied drugs to Liam should be prosecuted, he says.