Three people have been charged in relation to One Direction singer Liam Payne’s death, an Argentinian prosecutor’s office said on Thursday, after the superstar fell from his hotel balcony last month.
Payne had traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system when he died, authorities said in a statement. Those charged include someone close to Payne, a hotel employee and a suspected drug dealer, prosecutors said.
According to a translation of the statement, prosecutors said “exhaustive and meticulous measures were taken to clarify the circumstances” around the former One Direction singer’s death.
The statement said: “Based on the evidence gathered and after analysing the various bodies of proceedings and numerous documentary annexes and the background of the case, prosecutor Andres Esteban Madrea formally charged three people, requesting their questioning and arrest in a 180-page ruling presented last Friday to Judge Bruniard.”
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Prosecutors said one of the accused was accompanying the singer on a daily basis in Argentina, while another was an employee at the hotel where Payne was staying. The third person allegedly supplied drugs.
The statement said officials in Argentina had carried out a forensic analysis of Payne’s phone, including his call and message history, and also reviewed 800 hours of video footage from security cameras at the hotel and on nearby roads.
Nine raids have also been ordered on properties in Buenos Aires and the investigation continues with some of Payne’s devices still being analysed.
The public prosecutor’s office in Argentina said: “Illicit conduct was discovered from which three people were charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death, supply and facilitation of narcotics.”
According to Payne’s postmortem examination, the pop star died from multiple injuries as well as internal and external bleeding caused by the fall.
His body was found in the hotel’s internal courtyard.
– Wires
