Death of singer Liam Payne: five people charged

Argentine justice announced Monday that it was prosecuting five people as part of the investigation into the death of ex-member of the One Direction boy band Liam Payne in October, two of whom were placed in preventive detention.

“Three of the accused were charged without preventive detention for manslaughter, and the other two for the offense of supplying narcotics with placement in preventive detention,” said the prosecution in a press release, identifying the five people only by their initials.

Liam Payne, 31, was found dead on October 16 after falling from the balcony of his hotel room in Buenos Aires where he had been staying for a few days. According to the investigation, he had consumed alcohol, cocaine and antidepressants.

“RLN, representative of the victim and who accompanied Payne on this trip to Buenos Aires to renew his American visa; the hotel manager, GAM, and the hotel reception manager, ERG, are the three accused as perpetrators of involuntary manslaughter(…) punishable by a sentence of one to five years prison,” said the prosecution.

A hotel employee identified by the initials EDP and a waiter met by Mr. Payne in Buenos Aires, whose initials are BNP, are indicted for “supplying narcotics” (…), which is punishable by a sentence of four to fifteen years in prison. Both were placed in pre-trial detention.

At the beginning of November, the Argentine prosecutor’s office presented charges of selling drugs and abandoning a vulnerable person against three people, without disclosing their names.

Monday’s decision means that the five people mentioned will be sent to court.

The singer’s death sparked a wave of tributes across the world.

One Direction, who was one of the most lucrative boy bands in the world, with their smooth and light pop, released their fifth and final studio album, “Made in the AM” in 2016. The announcement the same year of a break in the group’s career, never formalized as a separation, upset millions of fans.