8 November 2024, 06:42 | Updated: 8 November 2024, 07:46
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alamy
One Direction star Liam Payne’s death is not being treated as suicide, according to a new statement released by Argentina prosecutors.
The lengthy statement, released on Thursday, appears to show that authorities have now ruled out suicide, after questions were raised as to whether the star had taken his own life following the balcony fall.
In a statement which has been translated into English, prosecutors said: “In the state he was in, he did not know what he was doing and could not understand it.”
It follows three people being charged in connection with the death of the pop star, after the 31-year-old fell from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires last month.
The individuals who have been charged include someone who was close to Payne, a hotel employee and a suspected drug dealer, it’s been claimed.
Argentinian prosecutors say they’ve been charged with “abandonment of a person followed by death” and the “supply and facilitation of narcotics”.
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Alamy
Emergency services had been called on the day Payne fell at the Casa Sur Hotel to a “guest who was under the influence of drugs and alcohol and who had destroyed some objects in the room”.
The statement explained: “Liam Payne was not fully conscious or was experiencing a state of noticeable decrease or loss of consciousness at the time of the fall”.
“For the prosecution, this situation would also rule out the possibility of a conscious or voluntary act on the part of the victim, since, in the state he was in, he did not know what he was doing and could not understand it.”
Prosecutors have said they have since conducted “detailed analysis” of more than 800 hours of CCTV footage from “various security cameras” in the hotel following the fall, alongside footage from those on the street.
The prosecutors’ statement statement read: “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 first of the accused is the person who accompanied the artist on a daily basis during his stay in the city of Buenos Aires, who is charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death – contemplated in article 106 of the Penal Code and which provides for a prison sentence of 5 to 15 years -, as perpetrator, in ideal concurrence with the supply and facilitation of narcotics (art. 5 inc. e) of Law 23.737 on Narcotics).
“The second defendant is an employee of the hotel who is charged with two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the period he was at the hotel, and the third, also a supplier of narcotics, is charged with two other clearly proven supplies at two different times on 14 October. Both were charged with the offence of supplying narcotics, two acts each (art. 5 inc. e) of Law 23.737).”
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Alamy
The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Argentina had been investigating the circumstances around Payne’s death.
It is being treated as “an inconclusive death”, and an initial post-mortem examination found he died instantly because of multiple traumas and “internal and external haemorrhage”.
The singer-songwriter’s body is due to be flown back to the UK this week.
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Showbiz journalist discusses Liam Payne’s family statement
Tributes have continued to pour in for Payne, with his bandmates Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson paying tribute shortly after he died.
Payne had struggled with alcoholism when he was at the height of his fame, telling a 2021 edition of The Diary Of A CEO podcast host Steven Bartlett, he reached “rock bottom” before going to rehab.
In 2023, he posted a video about being in an rehab facility in Louisiana, saying he had “got more of a grip on life”.