MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Three people indicted in Buenos Aires in connection with Liam Payne's death

At the time of these detentions, Payne's body had already landed in England for funeral services

Three people have been arrested in Argentina in connection with the death of British pop musician Liam Payne. Prosecutors are charging them with various crimes, including the abandonment of a person followed by death, in addition to the supply and facilitation of narcotics.

These crimes carry penalties between 5 to 15 years in jail. The 31-year-old artist died last October 16 when he fell from a balcony at the Casa Sur hotel in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo.

One of the detainees was a close acquaintance of Payne's who visited him thrice daily. Also arrested was hotel employee Ezequiel David Pereyra and the third was the suspected drug dealer Braian Nahuel Paiz. All three suspects were released under certain restrictions pending trial.

“At least four supplies of narcotics from third parties and other facilitations of addictive consumptions by his direct environment” were accredited “in a visible, concrete and convincing way,” which were addressed to the former member of One Direction between Oct. 13 and 16 last, the Prosecutor's Office said.

According to toxicological studies, “Payne only presented in his body traces of a poly-consumption of alcohol, cocaine, and a prescribed antidepressant” in the previous 72 hours. All the injuries in Payne's body “were compatible with those produced by a fall from a height” while “self-injuries of any kind and/or the physical intervention of third parties were ruled out.”

Since the victim did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself in the fall from the third floor, “it can be inferred that he may have fallen in a state of semi- or total unconsciousness.” The post-mortem said the fall caused “polytrauma and internal and external bleeding.”

The first detainee, who was later identified as Rogelio “Roger” Nores, assumed the role of Liam's “representative” in Argentina when, in fact, he was not. Authorities reached these three suspects after reviewing 800 hours of video footage from security cameras and “dozens of interviews.” In addition, nine locations were also raided and several cell phones, computers, hard drives, and a jar of marijuana were seized.

At the time of these detentions, Payne's body had already landed in England for funeral services.

Nores told the Daily Mail that “on October 17 I gave a statement to the prosecutor as a witness and since then I have not spoken to any police or prosecutor.” He further dismissed the allegations that he had abandoned his friend while he was in an otherwise dangerous situation. “I never abandoned Liam. I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before it all happened,” Nores said. There were more than 15 people in the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left,“ he said. ”I never imagined something like this would happen,” he went on.

According to media reports, on the day of his death, Payne was visited by two women he had hired. During their meeting, alcoholic beverages were consumed, but there were no reports of cocaine use.