The waiter accused of selling cocaine to One Direction star Liam Payne, who died aged 31 last October, has shared his living conditions in prison in a recent interview
The waiter accused of selling cocaine to Liam Payne said he ‘fears for his life’ as he opened up about being in prison. Braian Paiz, who is currently sharing a remand cell with 15 other inmates, claimed to have been subjected to physical abuse and threats of electrocution while in prison.
Nicknamed “killer” by inmates, he could face over 10 years in prison if found guilty of selling cocaine to the late One Direction star. The singer-songwriter tragically died aged just 31 on October 16, 2024. The musician fell from the third floor of his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and sustained injuries incompatible with life.
Since Liam’s death, two suspects have been charged with supplying drugs, and both deny the allegations. However, no trial date has been set yet. Paiz, 25, and Ezequl David Pereya, 22, a former hotel worker, face up to 15 years in prison if they are convicted of drug offences. Both have been in jail since January.
Earlier this year, Paiz, who met Payne in a restaurant where he served him, talked to Argentinian publication Gente and maintained his innocence. He said: “I’m just a working lad who crossed paths with a star. Today I’m paying for that coincidence with my freedom.”
The maximum-security prison houses some of the country’s most dangerous men, with Paiz staying in the same Buenos Aires police cell he has been incarcerated in since the start of the year, but is expected to be transferred to a federal prison before the start of his trial.
Claiming he is still holding out hopes of being allowed to swap his current prison for house arrest before he is put on the stand, he told magazine Gente: “I wash with cold water. They burned me with boiling water, they hit me, they tried to electrocute me for not giving them cigarettes.
“I live with 15 people in a cell and they treat me like a rat. My meals arrive cold. I live surrounded by violence. I’m being medicated. I’m taking Sertraline, Risperidone and Promazepine.”
Recalling the night they got chatting in Cabana Las Lilas, the restaurant in the upmarket neighbourhood of Puerto Madero, Braian used to work at and Liam had picked for dinner, he said: “Liam approached me several times, always asking where the toilet was. But what he really wanted was to interact with me. He asked for my Instagram in front of his girlfriend.
“We started talking on a parallel account that he had created just for that purpose. It had no followers, nothing. We never used WhatsApp, as they said in the case. It was always on Instagram and then on iCloud.” He later claimed: “The prosecutor’s office deleted all my locations, but I have the screenshots.”
Paiz said the first visit he paid to Liam, on October 2 at the luxury Palacio Duhau – Park Hyatt Hotel in Buenos Aires, where he was staying before switching to the CasaSur Palermo, lasted an hour and a half.
He claimed the singer showed him three new songs he was going to bring out and a photo of a young boy he believes was his now eight-year-old son Bear after sketching his face from a snap he took of him.
The waiter, who has admitted to taking drugs with the singer but insists he never sold him narcotics, said: “I wanted to share drugs and I took what I had left.”
According to public prosecutors, their case against both Pereyra and Paiz is based on phone, CCTV and witness evidence.
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Source: Mirror
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