Three people have been arrested and charged in Argentina in relation to the death of Liam Payne.
A press release published today by Argentina's National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor's Office announced formal charges against three unnamed suspects connected to the former One Direction member's passing.
UPDATE (12/30, 9:12 a.m. ET): Five people have now been charged in connection to Payne's death.
Reports from several local Argentinian publications cite the prosecutor's office as having revealed manslaughter charges against hotel manger Gilda Martin, receptionist Esteban Grassi and Payne's friend, Roger Nores.
Hotel employee Ezequiel Pereyra and Braian Paiz, a waiter, have additionally been charged with supplying drugs.
Under Argentina's legal system, the prosecution will present the evidence it gathers to a judge, who then decides whether the case should go to trial. As per a statement from the prosecutor's office [via the BBC], judge Laura Bruniard made the call to proceed last Friday (December 27), but the defendants' lawyers can still appeal the decision.
If found guilty, Martin, Grassi and Nores could respectively face between one and five years in prison. Pereyra and Paiz — who have been ordered to be remanded in custody and summoned to appear in court within 24 working hours — could face a more severe sentence for supplying drugs, and are looking at anywhere between four and 15 years behind bars.
First accused is a person "who accompanied the artist on a daily basis during his stay" in Buenos Aires, who has been charged "with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death.
The second accused is a hotel employee who "must answer for two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the period he was at the hotel," while the third accused allegedly provided Payne with "two other clearly proven supplies during two different times on October 14."
Payne died after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires on October 16. He was 31.
A preliminary autopsy revealed that the singer suffered multiple traumas from the fall, as well as internal and external bleeding, while further toxicology reports revealed that Payne had multiple substances in his system at the time of his death.
A recording of the 911 call obtained by the Associated Press features the hotel manager telling emergency services about "a guest who is overwhelmed with drugs and alcohol ... He's destroying the entire room and, well, we need you to send someone, please."