Liam Payne death probe update as five suspects will learn in days whether they’ll be prosecuted
FIVE suspects being investigated over pop star Liam Payne’s death will learn early in the New Year if they will be prosecuted.
Judge Laura Bruniard has ten days to decide whether they should face criminal charges or if the cases against them should be closed.
Last week, two employees at the Buenos Aires hotel where the singer died joined three other men under official investigation.
The pair are now due to be questioned over Zoom between Tuesday and Thursday in the presence of their defence lawyers.
Court quiz dates of the original three suspects, who include Liam’s alleged drug dealer Braian Nahuel Paiz, have not yet been made public.
By the time the judge makes her decision, she is expected to have received reports on the phones and computers belonging to the suspects and witnesses.
These include two female escorts Liam spent his last hours with before his drink and drug-fuelled balcony fall.
She is also hoping to have missing CCTV footage showing the moment the One Direction singer hit the restaurant terrace below his room.
She also demanded police cybercrime specialists carry out “22 examinations of different phones and computers” confiscated from witnesses and suspects during prosecutor-requested raids.
The first three suspects were identified locally as Liam’s close friend Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores, former hotel worker Ezequiel David Pereyra, and Braian Nahuel Paiz.
The two men subsequently told they were under formal investigation and should hire defence lawyers so they could be questioned under oath, have been named locally as chief receptionist Esteban Grassi and head of security Gilda Martin.
Just before his untimely death, Liam and his girlfriend Kate Cassidy had travelled to Argentina to watch Liam’s former bandmate Niall Horan in concert there.
Kate had returned home early after feeling homesick, a few days before he plunged to his death in Buenos Aires.
The late singer’s grieving girlfriend later attended his funeral, alongside his former bandmates, Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson.
Payne’s ex Cheryl Cole, the mother of their seven-year-old son, Bear, was also in attendance, as well as music mogul, Simon Cowell, whose show the X Factor launched Liam into the stratosphere.