Liam Payne poses for photographers backstage at the MTV European Music Awards 2017 in London, Sunday, Nov. 12, 2017. Image: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — An Argentine judge confirmed charges against five people in connection with the death of Liam Payne, a former member of the music group One Direction, and ordered preventive prison for two of them for having supplied him with drugs.
A judicial officer confirmed Monday, Dec. 30, the judge’s decision and said that one of the two people ordered to be put under preventive prison — a form of pre-trial detention — was an employee of the hotel in Buenos Aires where Payne stayed until he died after falling from the balcony of his room in October.
Article continues after this advertisementThe officer said the other person was a waiter Payne met in a restaurant. The officer, who requested not to be identified as a condition to talk about the ruling, said that both face charges for supplying drugs and they need to present themselves before the judge.
FEATURED STORIES ENTERTAINMENT Judy Ann Santos wants her daughter to learn self-defense ENTERTAINMENT The humor of Ishmael Bernal: ‘So rich and enriching, even at its blackest’ ENTERTAINMENT Riva Quenery, Vern Ong confirm split but ‘there are no goodbyes’The judge also charged three other people with 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 held under preventive prison.
In November, prosecutors filed initial charges against three people but didn’t reveal their names.
Article continues after this advertisementPayne fell from his room’s balcony on the third floor of his hotel in the upscale neighborhood of Palermo in the Argentine capital. His autopsy said he died from multiple injuries and external bleeding.
Article continues after this advertisementProsecutors also said that Payne’s toxicological exams showed that his body had “traces of alcohol, cocaine, and a prescribed antidepressant” in the moments before his death.
Article continues after this advertisementPayne’s autopsy showed his injuries were caused neither by self-harm nor by physical intervention of others. The document also said that he did not have the reflex of protecting himself in the fall, which suggests he might have been unconscious.
Prosecutors in Argentina also ruled out the possibility that Payne died by suicide.
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In the retail sector alone, more than half of small businesses said they had been victims of shoplifting in the prior year, according to a 2022 survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And break-ins and thefts occur across all sectors.
Article continues after this advertisementOne Direction was among 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.
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