Reports claim Buenos Aires police were hunting a second man accused to have been selling One Direction’s Liam Payne drugs prior to his death in October
Police were reportedly hunting the second man accused of selling Liam Payne drugs last night after arresting waiter Braian Paiz.
An arrest warrant was said to have been issued for Ezequiel David Pereyra, 21, after he failed to answer a court summons to hand himself in for preventive detention. Respected Argentinian news website Infoabae said last night the suspended hotel worker was not at his home on the outskirts of Buenos Aires when police went to execute the court order and he “remains a fugitive.”
There has been no official response from court officials or prosecutors to the reports. Earlier this evening Paiz’s lawyer Fernando Madeo confirmed his client had been arrested a week after judge Laura Bruniard charged him with the same crime Pereyra has been indicted on of selling Liam drugs before the singer’s third-floor plunge from the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires on October 16.
She had given both men 24 hours to hand themselves in so they could be sent to jail but the arrest of Paiz and the attempted detention of Pereyra didn’t take place until today. Paiz is said to have been held by officers from the Special Investigations Division of the Buenos Aires city police force.
Well-placed sources told Argentinian media they were hopeful of “capturing” Pereyra in the coming hours.
Argentinian newspaper La Nacion claimed in an online news report he had requested a prison exemption request on Monday which was opposed by public prosecutor Andrea Madrea and turned down by the judge who subsequently ordered his detention.
The drug deals Paiz and Pereyra have been charged over were dated and timed by prosecutors – 3.25am on October 15 and “between 3.30pm and 4pm” on October 16 in the case of suspended hotel worker Pereyra and 3.24am on October 14 and “between 10.03 and 10.44” the same day in the case of Paiz when they said Liam Payne went to his house to pick up the narcotics after they spent nearly five hours together in the singer’s hotel room from 3.25am to 8.15am.
Public prosecutors revealed earlier this week witness statements and CCTV analysis supported the allegation Pereyra had received US dollars 100 from Liam to buy narcotics for him and the singer had sent a car to his home on another occasion to pick up more drugs. Both men have been warned they face a prison sentence of between four to 15 years if convicted as charged.
Earlier today it emerged Paiz’s lawyer was claiming it was “impossible” the charges against his client would stick following Liam’s hotel death. He also insisted the 24-year-old was the victim of a “witch hunt” sparked by the authorities’ desire for culprits. Alleging the same problems often appeared in other headline cases which sparked national and international interest, he said: “They want to look for culprits at any price, violating constitutional rights and guarantees and forming a ’truth’ which turns out to false as is the case here, accusing innocent people of crimes they haven’t committed.”
Labelling some recent media reports claiming his client had refused to testify in front of a judge who has charged him with selling drugs to Liam as “fake”, Mr Madeo insisted: “We presented a very long statement in which we addressed all the issues and the false accusations against Braian and we have explained everything from his point of view.”
Paiz has confessed to consuming drugs with Liam at the hotel where he died but refuted claims he sold him any narcotics. Respected Argentinian news website Todo Noticias reported earlier this week court papers showed the waiter had admitted to giving the singer drugs but claimed he gifted them to him.
Mr Madeo said of the judge’s formal accusation that his client sold Liam drugs in a recent Argentinian TV interview: “It’s absurd, it’s not been proved and it’s not going to be proven because it’s not true.”
The other three men indicted, Liam’s close friend Roger Nores, chief hotel receptionist Esteban Grassi and the hotel’s head of security Gilda Martin, have all been charged with manslaughter but allowed to remain free while their prosecution continues.
They are facing between one and five years in prison if convicted as charged although they have been told they could be eligible for suspended jail sentences. Judge Laura Bruniard pointed the finger at the hotel chiefs over their decision to move Liam from the lobby to his third-floor room when he couldn’t stand on his feet because of his prior drink and drug binge, saying it “created a legally unacceptable risk to his life” which had “foreseeable” consequences.
Argentinian prosecutors referred to Liam’s friend Roger Nores in a lengthy statement they released earlier this week as the “victim’s representative” although they identified him only by his initials R.L.N.
Judge Bruniard in her indictment ruling accused the businessman, currently banned from leaving Argentina because of the charges against him, of “failing in his duty of care, assistance and help” towards the singer and “abandoning him to his fate, knowing he couldn’t fend for himself, aware he suffered multiple additions to alcohol and cocaine and fully conscious of the state of intoxication, vulnerably and defenceless he was in.”
Mr Nores told a recent TMZ documentary examining the life and death of Liam Payne that he was “in good spirits and perfectly balanced” the day he died as he refuted claims the singer was acting erratically and was intoxicated shortly before his fatal fall. The businessman had previously protested his innocence and refuted claims he was Liam’s ‘de facto’ manager.
He said in a statement shortly after it emerged he was being officially investigated before being charged: “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.”
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