Liam Payne: 5 charged in connection to One Direction star’s death – National

An Argentine judge confirmed charges against five people in connection with the death of Liam Paynea former member of a musical group One Directionand ordered preventive prison for two of them for having supplied him with drugs.

A judicial officer on Monday confirmed the judge’s decision, saying that one of the two people ordered to be placed under preventive detention – a form of pretrial detention – was an employee of the hotel in Buenos Aires where Payne stayed until he died after fall from the balcony of his room in October.

The officer said that the other person was a waiter Payne met in a restaurant. The officer, who asked not to be identified as a condition of speaking about the verdict, said both face drug supply charges and will have to appear in court.

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The judge also accused three other people of manslaughter, including a businessman who was with Payne in Argentina and two managers of the hotel. The official said they were not ordered to be kept under preventive detention.

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Prosecutors filed charges in November initial accusations against three peoplebut they have not revealed their names.

Payne fell from the balcony of his room on the third floor of his hotel in the upscale neighborhood of Palermo in the Argentine capital. His autopsy said he died of multiple injuries and external bleeding.

Prosecutors also said Payne’s toxicology exams showed his body had “traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescribed antidepressant” in the moments before his death.

Payne’s autopsy showed that his injuries were not caused by self-harm nor physical intervention by others. The document also said he did not have the reflex to protect himself during the fall, suggesting he may have been unconscious.

Prosecutors in Argentina have also ruled out the possibility that Payne died by suicide.

One Direction was one of the most successful boy bands of recent times. It 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.

& copy 2024 The Canadian Press