Autopsies for Emanuele Galeppini, Chiara Costanzo, and Achille Barosi, and exhumation for Giovanni Tamburi. These are the decisions of the Italian prosecutors investigating the New Year's Eve massacre in Crans-Montana.
Autopsies will be performed next week on the bodies of Chiara Costanzo and Achille Barosi. The Milan Public Prosecutor's Office, delegated by the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office, which has opened an investigation into multiple manslaughter, negligent assault, and arson, will set a date for the autopsies on the two Milanese victims in the next few hours and will then forward the results to the Rome investigators, who are in charge of the case.
The Bologna Prosecutor's Office, delegated by the Rome Prosecutor's Office to perform the autopsy, has ordered the exhumation of the body of Giovanni Tamburi, whose funeral was held on Wednesday. The case is currently pending against unknown persons.
The case of Giovanni Tamburi
Prosecutor Silvia Saracino, who has opened an investigation on behalf of her colleagues in Rome into the death of Emanuele Galeppini, the 16-year-old golf champion from Genoa who died in the massacre, will appoint university professor Francesco Ventura to perform the autopsy. The assignment will be formalized on January 19th, and that same day, a CT scan will be performed on the boy's body to determine whether he suffered crush injuries. The actual examination will be performed on January 20th. The forensic medical examination will determine the cause of the young man's death, namely whether it was due to burns, smoke fumes, or other factors.
According to documents in the possession of Roman prosecutors, who have now opened an investigation against unknown persons, three young men were found outside the Le Constellation nightclub, while the other 37 were found inside, most on or near the stairs. Galeppini may have been one of the three found in the street. Initial examination of the body showed no burns, but some abrasions and bruises, suggesting he may have been run over by someone while fleeing. Therefore, the hypothesis is that he may have died from smoke fumes or other causes, but not from the burns.
The deputy mayor's apologies
A "message of closeness to the suffering families" and a plea for "forgiveness." Nicole Bonvin Clivaz, deputy mayor of Crans-Montana, said this in an interview with Swiss television station RTS after Mayor Nicolas Féraud came under fire for failing to apologize to the victims at the press conference held the day after the tragedy.
"There's no excuse for not apologizing," she admits. "When you're on the line of fire, you can sometimes be clumsy, but today we have to do so: we stand with the families, we stand with the victims, these people who are suffering." "Regarding the checks," adds the number two in the Crans-Montana administration, "there was a failure. We didn't carry them out, and we admit we didn't, and we take responsibility for this failure, but the investigation will tell. Right now, we don't have the real answers yet."
According to Nicole Bonvin Clivaz, "the investigation will take a long time. There's still a lot to find and say. We must say that we've now recovered everything from the archives and tried to understand as best we can. We've handed over all the documents. We must understand that in just a few hours we had to reconstruct 60 years of history, and I believe we've done so with seriousness and a desire for transparency ." According to the deputy mayor, "the question of resignation is not being raised for now."
Moretti arrested
Meanwhile, Jacques Moretti, owner of the Constellation nightclub, the scene of the New Year's Eve massacre, spent his first night in prison after Valais Attorney General Béatrice Pilloud notified him yesterday of a request for detention following a lengthy six-and-a-half-hour interrogation. Lausanne-based lawyer Patrick Michod, representing the French entrepreneur along with his Geneva colleagues Yael Hayat and Nicola Meier, is working on a request for his release from the Pretrial Measures Court.
By Monday morning, he has committed to submitting a dossier demonstrating the absence of a risk of flight, or at least providing the guarantees the prosecutor's office has set as a condition for mitigating his detention. For Moretti's wife, Jessica Maric, co-owner of Constellation, the investigating magistrates have instead requested house arrest with the use of an electronic bracelet. This more lenient measure, granted also due to the need to care for the couple's two children, aged 6 months and 4 years, must be confirmed within 48 hours of notification by the same guarantee court.
(Unioneonline/D)