Swiss justice has decreed this Friday preventive detention for Jacques Moretti, the , where the New Year’s fire took place in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, half of whom were minors, and 119 were injured. Moretti, 39, and his wife, Jessica, are being investigated for homicide and arson with negligence.
The Prosecutor’s Office has decided that the husband enter prison provisionally considering that there is a risk of escape. His wife has been released. The French couple, originally from Corsica, were questioned for almost seven hours this Friday in Sion, the capital of the Swiss canton of Valais, to which Crans-Montana belongs. The couple’s lawyers had demanded preventive detention for the couple considering that they could destroy evidence that implicated them.
The criminal investigation against the owners of the premises was opened two days after the incident. Both had been questioned as witnesses and this Friday they declared themselves involved. The mayor of Crans-Montana revealed this week that the bar that the couple ran for the last five years (2020-2025) is required by law. They had also not requested permits to carry out the renovation work they did inside the bar in 2015, before opening it. They detailed and documented them on a Facebook web page, which was deleted days after the incident.
“The families’ concern is the risk that the evidence will disappear or that the testimonies carried out will be negatively affected, both by the accused and by the authorities who have already admitted irregularities,” Jordan and Ronald Asmar, two of the families’ lawyers, had claimed.
The owners are being investigated for the serious negligence they committed. This was triggered on the ground floor of the premises, when it was covered with an anti-noise but highly flammable material. The fire spread rapidly, trapping dozens of young people. It has not yet been explained why the emergency exit on the lower floor did not work.
This Friday the ceremony was held in tribute to the 40 fatalities and the 119 injured in the fire. The event was attended by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and also the Italian president, Sergio Matarella. Among the victims were nine French and six Italians.
