Lawyers for victims of the deadly New Year’s Eve fire in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana have formally asked prosecutors to upgrade the charges against the bar’s owners after text messages emerged discussing the danger.
Forty-one people were killed and 115 injured in the blaze at Le Constellation bar, which investigators believe started in the basement when sparklers attached to champagne bottles were held too close to sound-insulating foam on the ceiling.
The bar’s owners, Jessica and Jacques Moretti, face charges including manslaughter by negligence and arson by negligence over the blaze. Another 12 suspects, including several current and former local officials, are under criminal investigation.
Lawyers for some of the victims, most of whom were teenagers, told the Swiss public broadcaster RTS on Wednesday they had asked investigators to upgrade the charges against the Morettis from manslaughter by negligence to murder with possible intent.
The public prosecutor for Valais canton confirmed to Agence France-Presse that two lawyers, Sophie Haenni and Ludovic Tirelli, had formally submitted the request after the couple’s latest cross-examination by investigating magistrates in Sion on Friday last week.
At that hearing, the lawyers said, the couple were confronted with messages from a WhatsApp group in which Jessica Moretti warned staff to be careful with sparklers because if the carpet, sofas or ceiling foam caught fire the bar would burn.
Haenni told AFP she had given prosecutors the messages, which dated from 2019, saying they demonstrated that the Morettis – who have denied all wrongdoing – were “perfectly aware of the highly flammable nature of the acoustic foam”.
Haenni, who represents the family of an employee who died in the fire, said: “The Morettis knew the bar could catch fire. They were aware of the risk and they accepted it. The charge should no longer be negligence but murder with possible intent.”
The couple’s lawyers have dismissed the allegations that they were aware of the danger as “nonsense”.
“How can anyone argue that the Morettis foresaw a mortal risk? Worse still, that they would have accepted it?” Yaël Hayat and Nicola Meier told RTS. “Jessica was at the scene the night of the tragedy. Her presence is the best alibi for this absurd accusation.”
Under Swiss criminal law, “possible intent” exists when a perpetrator “considers the commission of the offence to be possible but acts anyway, because he accepts this result if it occurs … even if he judges it to be undesirable and does not wish it”.
The Morettis’ lawyers have also confirmed that Jessica was notified at the 5 June hearing, which was attended by victims’ families and their lawyers, that she faced a new charge of forgery relating to the invoice for the sound-insulating foam panels.
The couple’s lawyers said the document, from 2015, had “simply been recorded in the accounts under a different name” and was not relevant to the case.