Three people have been charged in connection with Liam Payne’s death, officials have confirmed.
Those charged are someone who was close to Payne, a hotel employee and a suspected drug dealer, Argentina’s public prosecutor announced in a statement.
Liam died after he from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires on October 16.
The three have now been arrested and charged with “abandonment of a person followed by death, supply and facilitation of narcotics,” confirmed a statement by the office of prosecutor Andres Esteban Madrea.
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.”
The statement added: “Liam Payne was not fully conscious or was experiencing a state of noticeable decrease or loss of consciousness at the time of the fall”.
It added that one of the accused “accompanied the artist on a daily basis” during his stay in Argentina.
A hotel employee is also accused of supplying Payne with cocaine twice while he stayed at the hotel, prosecutors added.
A third person is accused of supplying drugs to the singer twice during his stay on October 14, the statement said.
Madrea confirmed they are both charged with two acts each of supplying narcotics.
The prosecutor’s office said it had heard several dozen testimonies and analysed more than 800 hours of CCTV footage from security cameras.
They said they carried out a “forensic extraction” of Liam’s phone, sifting through his call logs, messages and social media accounts.
Nine raids have also been carried out on properties in Buenos Aires.
A post-mortem concluded Liam’s death was caused by “multiple trauma” and “internal and external haemorrhage” after the fall.
Prosecutors said there was nothing to indicate any third party was involved in the death.
The statement said: “Although other medical background information from the victim’s clinical history must still be analysed, the phenomenon of the lack of defence or self-preservation reflex in the fall, together with other relevant data from his consumption, allow us to conclude that Liam Payne was not fully conscious or was experiencing a state of noticeable decrease or loss of consciousness at the time of the fall.”
