{"id":47046,"date":"2026-04-10T12:33:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/47046\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T12:33:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:33:05","slug":"former-fire-safety-chief-remains-silent-in-swiss-bar-fire-probe-lawyer-says-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/47046\/","title":{"rendered":"Former fire safety chief remains silent in Swiss bar fire probe, lawyer says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former fire safety official in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana remained silent when questioned by prosecutors on Wednesday investigating a deadly New Year bar fire, his lawyer said.<\/p>\n

“My client exercised his right to remain silent as he does not yet have access to the case file,” lawyer Fabien Mingard told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n

“He will answer the public prosecutors’ questions as soon as he has access to the file.”<\/p>\n

The former head of the Crans-Montana municipality’s fire safety department has not been named by Swiss media.<\/p>\n

“The hearing lasted only 15-20 minutes because the defendant refused to cooperate after being informed of the charges,” Robert Assael, one of the lawyers for the civil parties in the case, said.<\/p>\n

“I am shocked that he did not answer the questions when the victims…are only waiting for one thing: the truth,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

People gather for a minute of silence on the national day of mourning at Lausanne Cathedral, 9 January, 2026 – AP Photo <\/p>\n

The blaze at Le Constellation, a bar in the upmarket Alpine resort, broke out in the early hours of 1 January as people celebrated the New Year.<\/p>\n

A total of 41 people, most of them teenagers, were killed and another 115 were injured in the disaster.<\/p>\n

Nine people are under criminal investigation in the case.<\/p>\n

They include the bar’s French owners, husband and wife Jacques and Jessica Moretti, who face charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

They have twice been questioned at length by public prosecutors and lawyers for the civil parties.<\/p>\n

Nicola Meier, a lawyer for the Morettis, said he was “surprised” by the former fire safety official remaining silent, while noting that “it is his right” to do so.<\/p>\n

“The Morettis…have never refused to answer a single question. They have always been fully cooperative, and that remains the case today and will continue to be,” Meier told AFP.<\/p>\n

Crans-Montana is in Switzerland’s southwestern Wallis canton and the hearings are taking place in the cantonal capital Sion.<\/p>\n

\"United<\/p>\n

United States’ Jacqueline Wiles approaches the finish line during an alpine ski in Crans-Montana , 30 January, 2026 – AP Photo <\/p>\n

Jacques Moretti was due to be questioned again on Tuesday but the hearing was postponed indefinitely on medical grounds.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors believe the fire started when champagne bottles with sparklers attached were raised too close to the ceiling in the bar’s basement level, igniting the sound insulation foam.<\/p>\n

The municipality triggered outrage on 6 January when it revealed that no annual safety check had been carried out at the bar since 2019.<\/p>\n

Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas F\u00e9raud is due to face questioning in the coming days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former fire safety official in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana remained silent when questioned by prosecutors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[27271,3645,12623,5908,26699,15885,26700,41,7624,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-47046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-afp-news-agency","9":"tag-crans-montana","10":"tag-fire-safety","11":"tag-lawyer","12":"tag-nicola-meier","13":"tag-prosecutors","14":"tag-public-prosecutors","15":"tag-swiss","16":"tag-swiss-ski-resort","17":"tag-switzerland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116380435966381944","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}