The waiter accused of selling cocaine to Liam Payne has spoken out about his treatment from other prisoners where he’s being held while a trial date goes unset
The waiter accused of selling drugs to Liam Payne before his death has spoken out from behind bars. Braian Paiz, 25, claimed he has been assaulted, burned and threatened by the other inmates while he waits to see if a trial date has been set.
Liam Payne died a year ago today, after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina. The cause of death was ruled as ‘polytrauma’, which is where death occurs from multiple injuries. But a toxicology report showed traces of cocaine, and Paiz was arrested for selling it to the singer, which he denies.
The waiter has been in prison since January, after police raided his home. Most prisoners only spend a few weeks in the holding facility, and are then transferred to formal prisons, but Paiz has been there more than eight months.
From behind bars, Paiz has now done an interview where he alleges he has suffered multiple injuries inflicted by the other inmates. He has claimed that his fellow prisoners, who nicknamed him “Killer”, have assaulted him, hit him with a canister, burned him with boiling water and threatened to electrocute him.
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Paiz spoke about his experience in a 30-minute interview with Gente Magazine, an Argentinian magazine. “I live with 15 people in a cell and they treat me like a rat.”
He was not more specific about how badly he had been hurt, but his lawyer, Juan Pablo Madeo Facente, told the Daily Mail that Paiz has been beaten, denied urgent medical care after contracting a urinary tract infection and now relies on anti-depressants.
He has been charged with selling cocaine to the One Direction star, but has yet to face a trial, as the authorities are still working through 800 hours of footage from CCTV and mobile phones. In Argentina, a judge must be presented with evidence to decide if a trial should go ahead before a date can be set. If a trial does go ahead, Paiz could face up to 15 years in prison.
He has admitted to giving drugs to Payne, but has denied taking money for them, which is the offence he’s been charged with. Paiz, who was arrested alongside hotel cleaner Ezequiel David Pereyra, 22, told The Sun that he wished the singer hadn’t died but did not regret meeting him.
He said: “I wish [Payne] hadn’t died and things were different. I used to feel regret about what happened, but actually I don’t regret meeting him as he was my idol and I was a big fan.”
Pereyra also spoke to The Sun and claimed the bosses of the hotel, Casa Sur Palermo, turned a blind eye to Payne’s drug use. He told the publication that the hotel had the singer in “an isolated bunker” and “let him do anything he wanted” because “he was making them too much money”.
“But I think the biggest mistake was not calling an ambulance when Payne passed out in the lobby,” he added. “If the hotel had acted differently, Liam could have been saved.”
Pereyra claimed Liam was moved from the lobby “because that day they had many foreign guests checking in”. Detailing the tragic moments that followed, the cleaner said the bosses called police instead of an ambulance after leaving Liam in his room alone.
He claimed by the time they made the call, “it was already too late.” Pereyra claimed Liam’s death could have been prevented and was “very sad”.
The police investigation has contradicted this and revealed that the hotel receptionist called the ambulance at 5pm, once Liam had been taken to his room.
The Mirror reached out to Casa Sur Palermo when Pereyra’s allegations were published.
