An Argentine judge has approved charges against five people in connection with the death of former One Direction member Liam Payne, and ordered two of them to serve preventive prison terms for supplying drugs.
A judicial official confirmed the judge’s decision on Monday, saying one of the two people ordered to be held in a preventive prison, a type of pretrial detention, will be sent to Buenos Aires, where Mr. Payne had been staying until he fell to his death. He said he was a hotel employee. The balcony of his room in October.
The officer said the person was a waiter Payne had met at a restaurant. The officer, who requested anonymity as a condition of speaking about the sentence, said the two could be charged with supplying drugs and would have to appear before a judge.
The judge also charged three other people who were with Payne in Argentina, including a businessman and two hotel managers, with manslaughter. Officials said they have not been ordered to be held in a preventive prison.
Prosecutors first indicted the three in November, but did not name them.
Payne fell from the balcony of her third-floor hotel room in an upscale residential area of Palermo, Argentina’s capital. An autopsy revealed that he died from multiple injuries and external bleeding.
Prosecutors also said Payne’s toxicological tests showed his body had “traces of alcohol, cocaine, and prescribed antidepressants” shortly before death.
An autopsy on Payne revealed that his injuries were not caused by self-inflicted injury or physical intervention by another person. The documents also say he had no reflexes to protect himself during the fall, suggesting he may have been unconscious.
Argentine prosecutors also ruled out the possibility that Mr. Payne died by suicide.
The funeral for the pop singer, who died at the age of 31, was held in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.
One Direction is one of the most successful boy bands of recent times. Announcing an indefinite hiatus in 2016, Payne pursued a solo career, along with former bandmates Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson.
Source link
