The Sion court has validated the three-month precautionary arrest of Jacques Moretti, owner of the Constellation in Crans-Montana, where the fire broke out on New Year's Eve, killing 40 people .
The Detention Court confirmed the existence of a risk of escape , "the only risk invoked by the Public Prosecutor", as stated in the reasons.
The judges are, however, "willing to revoke the pre-trial detention, in light of various measures requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office, including, in particular, the payment of bail, as these measures appear adequate to counter the risk of escape." However, "since setting bail requires a thorough investigation," the statement reads, "in the meantime, deprivation of liberty must prevail."
When questioned as a person informed of the facts, therefore before the interrogation at the end of which he was arrested, Moretti admitted that the emergency door was locked . Indeed, he said that when, alerted to the fire, he arrived at Le Constellation, he found the door locked from the inside with a padlock , unusually.
But the 350-page prosecutor's file also contains testimonies from those who were present, at least a dozen people, mostly in the basement: all agreed on the lack of escape routes . Among them was a former employee who had stopped to say goodbye to a waitress friend, who had died, and whom the boss had asked to lend a hand. For this reason, she went downstairs.
“You ask me if there were visible safety devices in the bar in case of fire? I answer no,” he said, while a 17-year-old with a 320-euro table on the ground floor who went downstairs five minutes later said he was “surprised by the lack of emergency exits.”
When questioned on Friday, Moretti did not rule out the possibility that the fire was caused by flares used on champagne bottles on New Year's Eve, but he is convinced there was something else at play. "We've been using them for ten years and have never had any problems," he said. "Systematically, when we serve a bottle in the dining room," his wife confirmed, "we add a sparkling candle." But it was immediately clear that the flares started the blaze, and in a 2020 video recorded in the basement, a waitress can be heard yelling "watch out for the sponge" as a bottle of champagne with a fountain of sparklers is brought to the table .
Moretti also admitted to having purchased the insulation himself, from a DIY store, and having installed it during the 2015 renovations when they purchased the premises. Since then, the authorities have intervened twice. In 2020, Le Matin Dimanche and the SonntagsZeitung reported, a criminal investigation was opened into €75,500 in funds they had obtained as a Covid loan, partly used to purchase a Maserati. The investigation was dismissed because they demonstrated that the car was not their property but was registered with the company. In 2022, the labor inspectorate intervened after French employees reported irregularities, such as non-compliance with working hours and rest periods and unpaid night work.
Another issue concerns Moretti's criminal record, as he was convicted at least once in 2008 in France for aggravated solicitation of prostitution . Valais law stipulates that club managers cannot have convictions for "a felony, misdemeanor, or contravention that could present a risk" to their operations, but the Morettis were granted permits for Le Constellation and then for two other clubs. According to a person close to them, quoted by Matin Dimanche, the reason is that they were only asked for their Swiss criminal records .
As for the checks, the fire safety officer in Lens (not the same one in charge of the Crans premises), who was investigated, admitted that he had not carried them out because he had over a thousand checks to carry out in the municipality and those in schools and hotels were the priority .
(Unioneonline)
