Crans-Montana ski resort: Owner of Swiss Bar where 40 died ordered to jail as a flight risk
A Swiss court on Monday ordered one of the two owners of a bar that caught fire during a New Year’s celebration to be placed in pretrial detention for at least three months, according to a court statement.
The owners, Jacques and Jessica Moretti, are under investigation over whether negligence played a role in the fire at Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, a popular ski town in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. The fire killed 40 people, most of them teenagers.
Investigators have said they believe the fire was started by sparklers but have not elaborated. Videos and witnesses have suggested that pyrotechnics placed on bottles of alcohol ignited the foam-covered ceiling of the bar’s basement.
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The court, which under Swiss law had 48 hours to make a decision, approved a prosecutor’s request to place Jacques Moretti in pretrial detention “for an initial period of three months due to the risk of flight.” The court said it could lift the detention order if other means were found to eliminate the flight risk.
It added that it was “not a question of punishing the defendant, who is presumed innocent until a possible conviction becomes final.”
Unlike her husband, Jessica Moretti was let go after questioning. The couple’s lawyers said in a statement that the decision would allow Jacques Moretti, “once the conditions are met, to regain his freedom.” The statement said the couple would not “evade this legal process, which they will face together.”
Sébastien Fanti, a lawyer for three Swiss citizens injured in the fire, said he and his clients were “not entirely satisfied” with the court’s decision to detain only Jacques Moretti. “This morning, the father of a child who was burned alive said to me, ‘He died as if in war, so now it’s war,’” Fanti said.
Lawyers for the victims and their relatives have also asked investigators to look into the role of town officials. In a news conference last week, Nicolas Féraud, the mayor of Crans-Montana, acknowledged that local authorities had not carried out yearly safety inspections between 2020 and 2025.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
© 2026 The New York Times Company
Originally published on The New York Times
