The prosecutor’s office of the Swiss canton of Valais announced this Saturday the opening of a criminal case against the owners of the Le Constellation bar, where it took place, according to the latest report. They are accused of “homicide by negligence, bodily injury and arson by negligence,” according to a statement from the Valais canton police. Preventive detention has not been declared for both.
The owners of the establishment are two Frenchmen originally from Corsica, Jacques and Jessica Moretti. After the incident, both had been questioned by the police as witnesses to determine if the premises complied with the appropriate fire prevention and evacuation measures and with the permitted capacity of 300 people.
Some of the survivors, also questioned by the agents, have recounted the difficulties they had that night leaving the premises, which had . Many witnesses also report that it was common to place sparklers in champagne bottles at parties. The idea is to determine if they committed any illegality or, despite the drama, everything complied with the regulations.
The prosecutor of the canton of Valais, Béatrice Pilloud, warned this Saturday that “no clue is ruled out” and recalled that the two bar managers are “presumed innocent.” The couple, who have two other locations in the area, opened Le Constellation in 2015 after carrying out renovation work. Authorities have confirmed that the fire was caused by a flare that ignited the flammable ceiling on the ground floor of the premises. The open investigation will allow determining its responsibility in the incident and whether the materials complied with the regulations.
The prosecutor already warned at a press conference this Friday that part of the investigations focused on the “flammable roof.” The owner of the premises, Jacques Moretti, has declared to The tribune of Geneva that the premises had passed three controls in 10 years and that “everything has been done according to the rules.” “Leave us alone, we are also grieving,” he said.
According to the French newspaper The ParisianMoretti, 49, was already booked by the French police, since 20 years ago he was involved in a pimping case and another precedent for kidnapping and fraud. He ended up in prison, although according to these police sources cited by the media, “he does not belong to the spectrum of organized crime.”
While the investigation continues, work is progressing to name the victims. Four of them have already been formally identified and handed over to their families, according to the Police. All were Swiss nationals: two minors under 16 years of age and two young people aged 18 and 21. “The priority is identification, we know that the wait for families is unbearable,” declared the head of Security of the department, Stéphane Ganzer.
Parents waiting
About twenty relatives have been staying for four days at the Crans Montana Congress Palace, where a space has been set up for relatives where they are provided with psychological support. Some parents, explains Raffaella, responsible for the civil protection device provided by the Italian Government, “are in a phase of denial, even though there is little hope that their children are already among the injured.” “There is an Italian couple about whom the father does not believe it and the mother tries to assimilate that if she does not have news it is for a reason,” he detailed.
Alí Massimiliano, one of the psychologists on night shift, explains that in this type of case “they are accompanied, they are informed when there is important news about their children.” In a drama of such magnitude, he explains, the best thing is “to simply be present.” “We provide psychosocial assistance, we are always available just in case they need something, but we leave them space so that they can later assimilate what has happened to them. We speak only if they want to talk, but we do not invade their space,” he explains.
The injured hospitalized are of eight nationalities, the majority Swiss, French and Italian. Of them, 14 have not yet been identified. Some are in Valais hospitals, but the majority have been transferred to receive better medical care, to centers in Lausanne, Geneva and Zurich and to those in bordering countries such as Germany, Italy or France. Almost all have very serious burns.
This Saturday, for the first time since the fire, around twenty firefighters came in their uniforms to leave some flowers in front of Le Constellation. The unit has been received with applause by dozens of people who, like every day, leave flowers and messages of condolence to the victims and their families. The unit hugged each other through tears, before leaving some candles in the same place where four days ago they were trying to rescue young people from the burning bar.
