Jacques Moretti, the owner of a Swiss bar destroyed in a deadly New Year's Eve fire, has been arrested for domestic abuse against his wife.
Jacques Moretti, 49, was arrested at the couple's home in the Canton of Valais, in southwestern Switzerland, following allegations of violence against his wife Jessica Moretti, 41. According to an investigating source, Mr Moretti was placed in pre-trial detention after Mrs Moretti was taken to hospital on August 11.
He is currently being held on a variety of domestic violence charges, sources said. It is not known how long Mr Moretti will remain in custody, and the medical condition of his wife remains unknown.
Legal Defense and Statement
Lawyers representing the couple released a statement on Sunday evening referring to the report, stressing that the alleged events were being investigated in a separate case pertaining "exclusively to their private life".
In their statement, the lawyers said: "They should not be confused with the Constellation tragedy."
They added that the reported events "nevertheless fall within a context that cannot be ignored: that of a particularly intense ordeal that the Morettis have been trying to face together since January 1". Neither the couple's lawyers nor the public prosecutor's office responded immediately to requests for comment.
His trial for the domestic abuse allegations will be entirely separate from the trial in which both Morettis face potential convictions over the fatal tavern fire.
Background of the Owners
The couple is already facing criminal charges after a fire ripped through their bar, Le Constellation, in the Crans-Montana ski resort in Valais in the early hours of January 1. The blaze killed 41 people and injured 115, with most of the casualties being teenagers.
Mr Moretti was the registered owner of the Constellation, while his wife was managing the bar on the night of the inferno. Mr Moretti is an ex-pimp with a series of convictions and prison spells behind him. A French court sentenced him to a year in prison, with eight months suspended, for "aggravated pimping" in 2008.
The Morettis are among 16 people facing a criminal investigation over the fire. Among the charges, they face manslaughter by negligence and arson by negligence. Mr Moretti was briefly held in a cell from January 9 in connection with the fire, but was released on bail worth the equivalent of just under £200,000.
Since her last hearing on June 5, Mrs Moretti has also been charged with forgery, relating to the invoice for sound-insulating foam panels in the bar. A total of 16 people have been charged in relation to the Constellation fire, including local councillors who granted licences to the Morettis.
Cause of the Fatal Inferno
The fire broke out in the basement of the bar during New Year's Day celebrations. Cyane Panine, a 24-year-old waitress working in the bar, held a champagne bottle with candles attached high up in the basement, igniting foam soundproof cladding in the ceiling, video footage has shown.
Ms Panine had been encouraged by Mrs Moretti to "get the atmosphere going" at Le Constellation in the early hours of New Year's Day. This included getting waitresses to put sparklers in champagne bottles, before some were lifted on the shoulders of waiters in the bar's basement.
In video footage, someone can be seen trying desperately to extinguish the fire, but within seconds it takes hold, erupting into a deadly fireball that engulfs the packed bar. There was mass panic, and those who died trying to get out of the building included Ms Panine.
Staircase Collapse and Trap
Some 34 of those who died in the early hours of January 1 perished on the cramped stairwell that had been narrowed by two-thirds by its owner. The stairwell led up from the basement, where the fire was allegedly triggered by sparklers in champagne bottles that ignited foam soundproof cladding in the ceiling.
An enquiry source said: "This amounts to 85 per cent of the dead. They were trapped on the tiny staircase as everyone fought to get out, but they were unable to escape. Many were forced back into the basement when the stairwell became completely overcrowded and fell apart. It had been significantly reduced in size by the owners."
Swiss law enforcement officers found numerous bodies at the bottom of the staircase after the wooden steps and handrails collapsed. They could not withstand the pressure of the fleeing crowd, detached from the wall, and plunged into the basement.
Jacques Moretti has admitted to reducing the width of the stairwell from three metres to just one metre. He carried out the renovations himself when he took over management of the Constellation in 2015, and it is not known whether he had planning permission or not. According to multiple enquiry sources who have spoken to the media in France and Italy, the modification "played a decisive role in the disaster."
Locked Emergency Exit
When questioned by prosecutors, Mr Moretti did not discuss the stairwell renovation, but he admitted that a "ground-floor service door" was locked from the inside when the fire started. He said that he forced it open upon arriving at the scene and found victims dying from suffocation behind it.
Mr Moretti said he did not know why the door was locked, and, along with his wife, has denied any civil or criminal wrongdoing. Pointing to the service door rather than an exit, Mr Moretti said it was "closed and locked from the inside with a latch, whereas it usually wasn't."
Recalling the moment he tried to enter the building, Mr Moretti said: "I went out onto the patio [behind the bar]. All the windows were open. There were a lot of people there. I tried to get inside, but it was impossible. There was far too much smoke."
He added: "We forced it open - it finally gave way in a few seconds. When the door opened, several people were lying on the floor, unconscious. My stepdaughter Cyane was one of them. We pulled them all outside and put them in the recovery position."
Escape Allegations and Denial
The owners of the Swiss bar told how a waitress they viewed as "a stepdaughter" suffocated "in a pile of bodies behind a locked door." Cyane, a French national like the Morettis, died within the hour. Mr Moretti said he and Cyane's boyfriend "tried to resuscitate her for more than an hour in the street near the bar, until the emergency services told us it was too late."
Mrs Moretti is said to have driven herself home within minutes of the fire breaking out, after allegedly escaping as quickly as possible from the bar with the till containing the night's cash takings.
The Morettis have denied any wrongdoing in all the cases, saying they did everything possible to ensure everybody was safe. The pair have previously pinned the blame on the waitress who also died in the fire. The criminal investigations into the fire, and the alleged domestic abuse, continue.
