Rome Prosecutors Investigate Bar Owners After Deadly New Year's Eve Fire in Switzerland

Rome prosecutors formally placed Jacques and Jessica Moretti, owners of the Le Constellation bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, under investigation on Tuesday for their role in a New Year's Eve fire that killed 41 people and injured 115 others. The Rome Public Prosecutor's Office entered the married couple into the register of suspects on charges of negligent disaster, multiple manslaughter, arson, and very serious injuries aggravated by the violation of accident prevention regulations, according to Italian media reports citing the news agency Adnkronos. The investigation is coordinated by Chief Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, alongside Deputy Prosecutor Giovanni Conzo and prosecutor Stefano Opilio. The fire broke out on the night of December 31, 2025, in the basement of the establishment, killing 41 young people — among them 6 Italians, 8 French nationals, and 23 Swiss citizens — and injuring 115 more. Prosecutors have ordered the seizure of mobile phones belonging to victims and survivors as evidence to reconstruct the sequence of events, and autopsies have been conducted on the bodies of the Italian victims.

Survivor testimonies describe locked exits and no instructions The investigation file compiled in Rome draws heavily on testimonies from Italian survivors, all of whom have since been discharged from Italian hospitals after weeks of treatment, though their recovery is described as ongoing. According to those accounts, the emergency exits were locked or barred at the time of the fire, no one inside the venue gave instructions to those trying to escape, and fire extinguishers were not deployed. Survivor testimony also indicated that co-owner Jessica Moretti fled the scene during the blaze rather than directing an evacuation. The fire spread rapidly through the basement, with the Swiss investigation attributing the ignition to sparks from decorative "fountain" candles that set alight soundproofing foam on the ceiling, in the absence of fire-retardant materials. One account from the Italian outlet Il Giornale described an 18-year-old from the Canton of Vaud who repeatedly entered and exited the burning building to rescue friends before firefighters stopped him, and who continues to require psychological care despite suffering no physical injuries.

Swiss probe targets nine people, including local mayor The Rome investigation runs in parallel with a separate criminal inquiry conducted by the Sion Prosecutor's Office in Switzerland, which has placed nine people under investigation for homicide by negligence, bodily harm by negligence, and fire by negligence. Among those under investigation in Switzerland is Nicolas Féraud, identified in source articles as the president of the municipality of Crans-Montana, who was questioned by Swiss magistrates on Monday in a session reported to have lasted eleven hours. Féraud stated he had not been aware that safety inspections at Le Constellation had not been carried out since 2019 — a gap of six years preceding the fire. The two investigations are now described as operating under "reinforced cooperation," with Roman prosecutors awaiting documents already reviewed during a visit by prosecutor Opilio to Sion at the end of March. Swiss prosecutors, in turn, are expected to request via letters rogatory the acquisition of documents held by the Rome office, including survivor testimonies and autopsy results that Swiss authorities had not themselves conducted.

The Le Constellation fire on New Year's Eve 2025-2026 was one of the deadliest nightclub disasters in recent European history. The blaze primarily struck adolescents and young adults who had gathered to celebrate the new year in the basement of the bar. Italy recalled its ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, in January 2026 following an initial refusal by Swiss authorities to cooperate with the Roman investigation and a rejected request for a joint police team; Cornado returned to Bern only days before the April 14 announcement. France's Paris Prosecutor's Office also opened a separate inquiry at the start of January 2026 through its unit specializing in collective accident events, providing French victims and their families with a dedicated point of contact and a channel for exchanges with Swiss authorities.

41 (deaths) — people killed in the New Year's Eve fire at Le Constellation

Swiss: 23, French: 8, Italian: 6

Dual-country trial seen as unlikely despite parallel proceedings Despite the formal opening of proceedings in Rome, legal analysts cited by Il Messaggero consider it unlikely that the Morettis will ultimately face trial in Italy as well as Switzerland, as that would mean two identical trials in two different countries with the same defendants and the same victims. The Rome investigation was initiated on the basis of a communication transmitted by Ambassador Cornado, reflecting the standard Italian prosecutorial practice of asserting jurisdiction over crimes committed against Italian citizens abroad. The Paris Prosecutor's Office opened its own inquiry in early January 2026 through its "collective accidents" unit, offering French victims and their families a common point of contact in France and a mechanism to facilitate exchanges with Swiss authorities. The Morettis are not expected to be questioned by Rome prosecutors at this stage, according to reporting by Il Giornale. The three parallel investigations — in Rome, Sion, and Paris — reflect the multinational character of a disaster that claimed lives across three nationalities and has drawn scrutiny of venue safety standards, municipal oversight, and cross-border judicial cooperation.