Three charged in connection with the singer’s death

Three people have been charged in connection with the death of One Direction star Liam Payne, the Argentine authorities say.

The singer died on October 16 after falling from a third floor balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires.

Argentine prosecutors said a person accompanying the artist has been charged with abandoning a person followed by death and supplying and facilitating drugs.

A hotel employee and a third person have also been charged with supplying drugs. None of the arrested have been named.

Payne, 31, was one of the most recognizable names in pop after appearing on The X Factor and rising to fame with boy band One Direction in the 2010s.

Argentine authorities have investigated Payne’s final days at the CasaSur hotel.

The public prosecutor’s office said toxicology tests revealed traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his body.

An autopsy determined his cause of death as “multiple trauma” and “internal and external bleeding” as a result of the fall from the hotel balcony.

According to the prosecution, medical reports also suggested that Payne may have fallen into a state of semi or total unconsciousness.

Prosecutors say this rules out the possibility of a deliberate or voluntary act by Payne, and they conclude that he did not know what he was doing, nor did he understand it.

In addition, authorities have carried out nine raids on homes in Buenos Aires.

They are also continuing to investigate Payne’s broken laptop and other seized devices.

The singer’s body was released to his family on Wednesday to be flown back to the UK.