Four officials charged over fire at Swiss ski resort

Switzerland’s investigation into the deadly Crans-Montana fire has widened, with four additional current and former officials now facing criminal scrutiny, according to sources close to the case.

“The investigation has been extended to include four new individuals, bringing the total number of defendants to 13,” the public prosecutors’ office in southwest Switzerland’s Wallis canton confirmed to AFP.

Those newly drawn into the case are the Crans-Montana municipal councillor responsible for security, the person who previously held that role from 2013 to 2016, the current deputy head of the public safety department, and the mayor of the neighbouring municipality of Chermignon from 2009 to 2016, the sources said. They are due to be questioned between 11 May and 3 June.

The blaze tore through a bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana in the early hours of 1 January, as New Year celebrations were still under way.

Seventeen of those killed were aged 16 or under.

Investigators had already placed several people under scrutiny, including the bar’s French owners, husband and wife Jacques and Jessica Moretti. They face charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence.

Jacques Moretti is scheduled to appear for further questioning before public prosecutors on 5 June.

“We must commend the progress of the investigation and the sustained pace of the hearings. We are making progress, and for the families, this is invaluable,” Romain Jordan, a lawyer representing several victims’ relatives said.

The latest development comes after a second round of hearings in the case over recent weeks in Sion, the capital of Wallis.

One of those questioned was Crans-Montana mayor Nicolas Feraud, who said on Monday that he had not known annual safety inspections had gone undone for six years at Le Constellation.

He said his staff had the resources needed to carry out those checks.

Prosecutors suspect the fire began after champagne bottles fitted with sparklers were lifted too close to the basement ceiling of the bar, setting alight the sound-insulation foam.

The Federal Office for Civil Protection said that as of yesterday, 38 patients remained in hospitals and rehabilitation clinics: 19 in Switzerland and 19 in neighbouring countries.

The Wallis public prosecutor’s office also said it had turned down a request from Garen Ucari, a lawyer representing one victim’s father, to appoint an extraordinary prosecutor to supervise the investigation.

“The Crans-Montana tragedy is an extraordinary event with an international dimension and significant media coverage, for which the criminal liability of elected officials and employees of the cantonal or municipal administration may be called into question,” it said in a statement.

It added that such matters fall within its own jurisdiction and that the office had been strengthened with additional staff, meaning it believed it had “the means to ensure the efficient handling of the proceedings, in accordance with the principles of independence, objectivity, and expediency.”