Swiss bar owners face questions from victims' lawyers over fire disaster

Swiss bar owner Jacques Moretti was questioned by lawyers acting for victims' families on Wednesday, over the New Year's Day fire disaster in Crans-Montana that left 41 people dead and 115 injured.

He arrived for the hearing in Sion with his wife, Jessica, whose lawyer Yaël Hayat described the latest hearings as "moments of truth". Jessica Moretti faces questions on Thursday.

Ahead of the hearing, one mother told Swiss TV she needed to know what had gone wrong and why.

"What's important is that the whole truth comes out," said Laetitia Brodard-Sitre, whose 16-year-old son Arthur died in the fire.

"There must be no more lies," she told public broadcaster SRF. "I want everyone to take responsibility; politics and parties don't matter to me."

Jacques and Jessica Moretti are under criminal investigation for involuntary manslaughter, as well as bodily harm and arson through negligence. Neither is being held in custody; Mr Moretti was released on bail last month.

His wife's lawyer told French radio the couple had made clear from the outset that neither was trying to shirk justice for their part in the tragedy at Le Constellation bar in the popular Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.

"They obviously bear responsibility for what happened, as it happened on their property and they were guardians of the premises," Ms Hayat told France Info. "So they bear that responsibility; even so the inquiry must decide who is behind the tragedy."

The couple have been criticised by several former employees for safety failings which have emerged since the fire.

Sparkling candles in champagne bottles have been blamed for setting light to the ceiling, and footage has emerged showing an employee using snooker cues to push sound-proofing foam back into place on the ceiling weeks before the disaster.

No fire inspection had taken place there since 2019 and earlier this week, the former security officer at Crans-Montana's town hall told a hearing that local authorities had not closed any establishment there because of fire risks until last month.

He said he had only checked La Constellation twice - in 2018 and 2019 - and the acoustic foam on the ceiling, blamed for the fast spread of the fire, was not considered part of his fire safety examination.

Many of the victims of the new year fire were teenagers - the ages of the dead ranging from 14 to 39. It has since emerged that a service door had been locked, preventing many of those inside the bar from getting out as the fire spread at about 01:30 on New Year's Day.

A month after the disaster, the death toll rose to 41 when an 18-year-old Swiss man died of his injuries.

Three days before Wednesday's hearing, one of the survivors of the fire Mélanie Van de Velde posted an open letter, describing the extent of her injuries and how her body had become "a battlefield", with 40% burns.

"Every time the dressings [on my wounds] are changed, every two days, is an ordeal. Every treatment revives the pain," she said on Facebook. "My face will never be the same again... the one my daughter recognised is also gone."

She also asked where justice was when responsibility had been left "blurred, silent and diluted".

Leila Micheloud, whose two daughters were injured in the fire, told reporters outside the hearing in the Swiss town of Sion that her presence showed that the victims were "not just names on a list but they too had faces".

"I've made the choice to be here for my children, who are among the victims."