The singer sadly passed away in Buenos Aires last month
Three people have been charged in connection with the death of Liam Payne.
The former One Direction star died after falling from a third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires last month.
Argentinian police have ruled out third party involvement in his fall.
The public prosecutor’s office in Argentina announced yesterday that it had charged three people including one person who had been accompanying Payne who’s been accused of ‘abandonment of a person followed by death’ as well as being ‘complicit in the supply of drugs’. He has denied the charges.
Should he be found guilty, the crime carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
An employee at the hotel where Payne had been staying and a third person have also been charged with supplying drugs.
According to a forensic psychiatric report, prosecutors ruled out third party involvement and ‘self-harm’ in Payne’s death.
In a translated statement, prosecutors 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.”
The office also confirmed it had completed a detailed analysis of more than 800 hours of video footage from security cameras and obtained several dozen testimonies from hotel staff, family members, friends and medical professionals.
Nine raids have also been ordered on properties in Buenos Aires and some of Payne’s devices are still being analysed, prosecutors said.
Last weekend, the office released the 31-year-old’s body to his family.
Prosecutors added that “exhaustive and meticulous measures were taken to clarify the circumstances” around the former One Direction singer’s death.
After the singer’s death, police found substances in his hotel room and damaged objects and furniture according to the public prosecutor’s office.
Fans across the globe held memorials and vigils as fellow musicians paid tribute to Payne.
In a group statement, his former bandmates: Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson, said they were “completely devastated”, and will miss the singer “terribly”.
Payne auditioned for the X Factor in 2008 when he was 14, singing Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me To The Moon.
Judge Simon Cowell told him to return in two years which he did and it was then that the boy band was formed.
The music mogul said he was “truly devastated” in an Instagram post reacting to news of Payne’s death, adding: “Every tear I have shed is a memory of you.”
