Swiss prosecutors order ski bar owner detained as part of investigation into fatal fire – National

Swiss prosecutors said Friday they had ordered one of two owners of a ski resort bar to a fire on New Year’s Day killed 40 people and arrested them due to flight risk, with local media claiming the order had been carried out.

Prosecutors are investigating the French owners on suspicion of crimes, including negligent homicide, while the victims’ families have filed a complaint over the fire at the “Le Constellation” bar in Crans-Montana in the canton of Valais.

Shortly after the Swiss newspaper 24 Heures reported that one of the couples, Jacques Moretti, had been placed in pre-trial detention, the prosecution announced that it had ordered his detention.

The Valais police declined to comment.

Jacques and Jessica Moretti did not answer journalists’ questions as they entered the public prosecutor’s office in the city of Sion for a hearing. Swiss authorities have designated Friday a day of national mourning.

The couple expressed their grief over the fire and said they would fully cooperate with the investigation. More than half of the victims were teenagers and 116 other people were injured, many seriously.

Several French and Italian citizens were among the dead and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called for tough sanctions against those responsible for the fire.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella and French President Emmanuel Macron joined Swiss leaders, victims’ families and firefighters at a ceremony Friday in the town of Martigny, where a minute of silence was observed in memory of the victims.

Dozens of people also stood silently near the shuttered bar in Crans-Montana, their heads bowed under the heavy snowfall.

Authorities placed hundreds of letters, teddy bears and bouquets of flowers for fire victims under an igloo to protect them from falling snow.

Speaking at the ceremony in Martigny, Swiss President Guy Parmelin said he hoped those responsible for the fire would be brought to justice “without delay or leniency”.

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This must also include the competent political authorities, said Mathias Reynard, head of the Valais government.

Speaking in Rome on Friday, Meloni pledged to help the families of Italian victims get justice and said she was considering a ban in Italy on the use of sparklers indoors.

“What happened in Crans-Montana is the result of too many people not doing their job or thinking they can make money easily. Those responsible must be identified and brought to justice.”

Witnesses and prosecutors said the fire appeared to have been started by the use of flickering candles that ignited soundproof foam on the basement ceiling.

Questions remain over oversight of the bar, which the local mayor admitted this week had missed several security checks.

Prosecutors said last weekend that the legal criteria for arresting the bar’s owners had so far not been met.

In a statement on January 6, the owners said: “We are devastated and overwhelmed with grief, our thoughts are constantly with the victims, their loved ones who have been bereaved so suddenly and prematurely, and all those who are fighting for their lives. »

Twenty-one of the dead came from Switzerland, seven from France and six from Italy. A Swiss-French national and a French-British-Israeli national were also among the dead.