Argentine justice released on Wednesday Braian Nahuel Paiz and Ezequiel David Pereyra, two accused of supplying cocaine to British singer Liam Payne in the days leading up to his death in a Buenos Aires hotel, and ordered measures for them to await trial in freedom while the investigation culminates. According to sources in the case informed by EFE, Judge Karina Andrade, responsible for the Penal Contravencional and de Faltas Court number 15 of the City of Buenos Aires, ordered the release of both young men after several months of house arrest while the investigation advanced. Pereyra's lawyer, Augusto Cassiau, told EFE that his client was released after the judge ruled out the risk of flight and the possibility of intimidating witnesses. According to Cassiau, the judge "took into consideration that he is young, that he has worked his whole life and that he needs to work." The lawyer clarified, however, that Andrade imposed strict restraining orders on both accused to protect the final stage of the judicial investigation in the run-up to the oral trial they will face. Fernando Madeo Facente, Paiz's lawyer, celebrated his release on Wednesday through social media and published a photo of his client in freedom. Paiz met the musician in a restaurant in the Puerto Madero neighborhood, where he worked as a waiter. Liam Payne died on October 16, 2024, at the age of 31 after falling into an interior patio of the CasaSur hotel in Buenos Aires after having consumed, during the three days he was staying there, significant amounts of alcohol and cocaine that he combined with antidepressants. The autopsy revealed that the singer's death was caused by "polytrauma" and "internal and external hemorrhage" and the analyses ruled out self-inflicted injuries or the physical intervention of third parties. The experts concluded that the former One Direction member did not manage to protect himself in the fall, so they inferred that "he may have rushed in a state of semi or total unconsciousness." In the judicial case for Payne's death, five people were prosecuted, three of whom — Rogelio Nores, his manager and friend; Gilda Martín, in charge of the hotel; and Esteban Grassi, head of reception — were acquitted in February 2025.
