The block in the investigation into Liam Payne’s Buenos Aires hotel death was lifted overnight after prosecutors won their battle to reverse a judge’s decision to rule herself out of the probe.
Lead prosecutor Andres Madrea’s appeal court win paves the way for the acceleration of the inquiry and the "expected" arrest and incarceration of one of the three men placed under formal investigation last month.
The key decision also heralds the possible expansion of the number of suspects following local reports prosecutors are considering bringing manslaughter charges against hotel employees filmed carrying Liam from the lobby to his third-floor suite shortly before his drink and drug-fuelled balcony plunge.
The impasse caused by judge Laura Bruniard’s decision to rule herself out of the investigation on a technicality had slowed down the criminal probe’s progress and prevented prosecutors from questioning the three current suspects.
She had claimed the case had to be investigated by a conventional Buenos Aires court under Argentinian law because one of the allegations was Liam, 31, had been abandoned before his October 16 death at the Casasur Palermo Hotel.
Mr Madrea’s submission that her decision was “premature” was accepted late yesterday by a higher court.
His appeal win was the second in two days after he successfully challenged an earlier decision not to remand to prison a waiter accused of supplying Liam with drugs.
Braian Nahuel Paiz, 24, who has been identified as Liam’s alleged ‘dealer’, spoke on Argentinian TV last month to admit to two hotel meetings with the Brit and confess to taking drugs with him, but insist he never supplied the singer with narcotics or accepted any money from him.
On Monday appeal court judges Hernan Lopez and Ignacio Rodriguez Varela revoked an earlier ruling by Laura Bruniard to spare him ‘pre-trial detention.'
Paiz’s decision to move home after learning he had been placed under investigation despite hiring a defence lawyer is said to have been a key factor in the appeal judges’ resolution.
Argentinian media were reporting it was “unlikely” prosecutors would request his arrest before Mr Madrea’s second appeal win but well-placed sources said overnight the new court scenario now heightened that possibility.
They are also saying the key appeal decision paves the way for another man identified locally as one of the three suspects, Liam’s close friend Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores, to be formally questioned as part of the ongoing investigation.
Prosecution sources had already hinted before yesterday’s appeal ruling more people could be made suspects and the scope of the investigation widened to include potential manslaughter charges once the issues about which type of judge had the authority to head the probe were resolved.
On Saturday respected Argentinian news website Infobae reported Liam’s missing £30,000 Rolex watch had disappeared around the time one of the two sex workers he spent time with before his death went back up to his room to retrieve make-up she claimed to have left behind following a front lobby row over payment for her services.
The two women are currently being treated as witnesses but are said to have hired a lawyer to represent them despite not having to do so.
Liam reportedly offered the women $5000 after contacting them the day he died - but they are said to have ended up getting only a fraction of the promised money after the singer’s close friend Roger Nores intervened to help out.
Infobae claimed the two women told prosecutors during questioning ‘gentleman’ Liam had kneeled in front of them during their time together, telling them: ‘I love you, I love you’ and even “promised them” his missing Rolex.
But they alleged he failed to hand over any cash as promised in the room or later in the lobby before Mr Nores arrived to “resolve the situation.”
They are understood to have handed in their mobile phones voluntarily although the data stored on them is not yet thought to have been extracted and analysed.
Raids last month on a string of properties, including a flat said to have been used by one of the two sex workers to meet up with clients, failed to yield any trace of the missing Rolex.
The three people placed under investigation last month, but not yet formally charged with any crime, have been identified locally as Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores, former hotel worker Ezequiel David Pereyra, and Braian Nahuel Paiz.
Paiz told journalist Guillermo Panizza on Telefe Noticias just over three weeks ago he had consumed marijuana and Liam had taken cocaine during their second hotel rendezvous shortly before the singer’s death.
But he insisted: “I never took drugs to him or accepted any money.
“I have messages where he’s offering me money because he was apparently used to offering money for everything but I never accepted anything.”
Mr Nores had previously protested his innocence after being named locally as one of the trio under investigation.
Responding to the reports which identified him as one of the suspects linked to the drug accusations and allegations he abandoned Liam before his death, the businessman who has been described as the singer’s manager, said in a statement: “I never abandoned Liam, I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened.
“There were over 15 people at the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left.
“I could have never imagined something like this would happen.
“I’ve given my statement to the prosecutor on October 17 as a witness and I haven't spoken to any police officer or prosecutor ever since.
“I wasn't Liam's manager. He was just my very dear friend."
Ezequiel David Pereyra has yet to make any public comment.
Prosecutors said in a lengthy statement released on November 7 three men they did not identify by name were now being formally investigated on suspicion of abandoning a person who subsequently died and supplying and facilitating drugs.
The statement described one as the person who “routinely accompanied Liam during his stay in Buenos Aires.”
Tests have shown the singer binged on alcohol and cocaine before he died and also had traces of an antidepressant in his system.
Prosecutors also made it clear the idea Liam had committed suicide had been ruled out and said he was in a state of “semi or total unconsciousness” as he fell to his death from his hotel balcony when he “didn’t know what he was doing.”
They said of the hotel worker and the alleged “drug dealer”: “The second suspect is a hotel employee who must respond for two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the time he was in the hotel.
“The third is also a drug dealer who is being investigated on suspicion of another two clearly proven supplies of cocaine at two different times on October 14.”
Liam’s dad Geoff flew to Argentina two days after his son died and returned to the UK on November 7 with his body to help finalise funeral arrangements following a second visit to the makeshift shrine set up by fans outside the singer’s hotel.
His former bandmates Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik were among mourners at his November 20 funeral in Amersham.
Simon Cowell, James Corden, his girlfriend Kate Cassidy and Liam’s former partner Cheryl, mum to their seven-year-old son Bear, also joined his family and other friends at the private ceremony.
The now-published harrowing last photo of tragic Liam alive showed him being lifted by a group of men in the lobby shortly before his fatal fall.
The Daily Mail, which published the image obtained from CCTV footage, identified one of the men as a hotel spa masseur and the other two as reception staff who included chief receptionist Esteban Grassi.
Mr Grassi made a 999 call requesting urgent assistance for a guest he claimed was ‘high on drugs’ who was destroying everything in his room moments before Liam’s death, admitting: “We’re a little bit worried he’ll do something, that he’ll put his life at risk.”
Prosecutors have not made any official comment since they released their November 7 statement or referenced this week’s appeal hearing, although sources close to the probe have insisted the investigation was ongoing.
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