Crans-Montana: Jacques Moretti appears in court for further questioning
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Jacques Moretti, who is under investigation in connection with the Constellation bar fire in Crans-Montana on New Year’s Day, faced further questioning today in Sion. He arrived at the Energypolis campus in a police van, avoiding the cameras and the victims’ relatives.
The hearing was due to take the form of a face-to-face confrontation between the couple, Jacques and Jessica Moretti, as had already taken place on June 5, following the previous hearings on January 9 and 20 and February 12. However, the team of prosecutors decided to postpone Jessica Moretti’s appearance until December 2 due to “a particularly severe state of mental fragility”. Since mid-August, Jacques Moretti has been in pre-trial detention on charges of domestic violence against his wife.
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Several survivors – for the first time – and relatives of the victims of the tragedy, which left 41 dead and 115 injured, attended today’s hearing, assisted by their lawyers, to demand that full light be shed on the sequence of events and the grey areas that still remain.
Jacques Moretti, represented by lawyer Patrick Michod, is one of 17 people currently under investigation in connection with the tragic fire at Le Constellation bar. In addition to the couple, the proceedings involve eight former and current politicians from Crans-Montana and the former municipality of Chermignon, along with seven municipal officials and former employees.
The main charges against all of them are manslaughter, causing bodily harm through negligence and arson through negligence. Since early June, Jessica Moretti has also faced a charge of falsifying documents.
In a letter sent to the public prosecutor’s office in recent days, Moretti’s lawyer stated that the owner of the Constellation will not answer questions from the civil parties’ lawyers regarding any instances of money laundering.
Investigators have opened a separate line of inquiry into these alleged offences. The investigation file does indeed contain a Fedpol report highlighting “anomalous” movements and “opaque transactions” in the bank accounts.
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Translated from Italian reviewed by an English Department journalist.
