Buenos Aires, Jan 3 (EFE). – Argentine authorities on Friday arrested Braian Paiz, one of the five accused in the death of British singer Liam Payne in Buenos Aires.
Paiz, 24, had a warrant for his arrest since last week for the crime of drug trafficking. He was arrested at home after he failed to turn himself into authorities after the preventive detention order was issued.
He had met Payne at a restaurant in the Puerto Madero neighborhood of Buenos Aires, where he worked as a waiter and Payne was a customer.
Police also went to the home of Ezequiel Pereyra, an employee of the hotel where the former singer died and who also had a preventive arrest warrant for the same crime, but were unable to find him.
Both were charged last week, along with three others, by the 34th Criminal and Penitentiary Court, which is investigating the death of the former One Direction singer after he fell from the third floor of the Casa Sur Hotel on October 16.
In addition to Paiz and Pereyra, businessman Roger Nores, Gilda Martín, the hotel manager, and Esteban Grassi, who worked at the hotel, were also charged. All three are accused of the crime of involuntary manslaughter.
The prosecution’s investigation proved that the musician was supplied with drugs several times during his stay at the hotel, located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo.
The autopsy showed that Payne’s death was caused by the fall from the balcony of the third-floor room of the hotel when he was probably unconscious, as the autopsy ruled out self-injury or physical intervention by third parties, concluding that he did not protect himself in the fall. EFE
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