Bar Manager in Detention: Wife Released

The French couple, initially released, had already been heard as witnesses at the start of the investigation.

Le Constellation, Jacques Moretti (left) and Jessica Moretti, arrive for a hearing at the Valais canton prosecutor’s office, in Sion, on January 9, 2026. (FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)” width=”432″ height=”243″ src=”https://www.franceinfo.fr/pictures/jClJmdCGNTwH9sbzIMjFu8U8svk/0x0:1024×576/432×243/filters:format(jpg)/2026/01/09/000-924w3we-1-6961108dcdb60978481677.jpg” fetchpriority=”high”/>

Jacques Moretti, the manager of the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, the scene of a fatal fire during New Year’s Eve, was placed in pre-trial detention by Swiss justice on Friday January 9, following his hearing by the public prosecutor in Sion, the regional capital, franceinfo learned from a source close to the case. Visibly moved at the end of his hearing, his wife, Jessica Moretti, remains free, wanted “apologize for all the victims”reports the Swiss television channel Léman Bleu. On Friday, Switzerland paid tribute to the victims of the tragedy.

The French couple, initially released, had already been heard as witnesses at the start of the investigation. The two managers were questioned again, since Friday morning, by the courts on their personal situation and not on the safety standards of the bar implicated in the fire. This is the first time that they were questioned as part of the criminal investigation, opened on January 3 against them, for “negligent homicide, negligent bodily harm and negligent arson”. The investigation will have to establish the couple’s responsibility in the tragedy.

Jacques Moretti, 49, is already known unfavorably by French justice. He was sentenced in 2008, in Annecy, to 12 months in prison, eight of which were suspended, for “aggravated pimping”. In 2010, he was also convicted, in Bastia, of APL (personalized housing assistance) fraud. His wife Jessica Moretti, 39, has no criminal record.

The public prosecutor of the canton of Valais confirmed, Friday in a press release, the retention of the reason of risk of flight. During the hearing of the Moretti couple, “a new analysis of the risk of leakage has been carried out in detail”. “Given his statements, his life history and his situation in Switzerland and abroad, the public prosecutor considered that the risk of flight was concrete.” A risk which does not concern his wife, according to the press release.

The public prosecutor therefore decided to ask the court for constraint measures, the provisional detention of the manager and, in the alternative, alternative measures. “The decision to place him in pre-trial detention […] falls within the jurisdiction of the compulsory measures court.specifies the public prosecutor. In the meantime, Jacques Moretti was imprisoned. The court now has 48 hours to confirm this decision.

For Romain Jordan, one of the victims’ lawyers, “it is not up to the complainant to comment on the issues of preventive detention”. According to him, “the main concern of the families remains the risk of disappearance of evidence or harmful influence on the testimony to be collected, both from the defendants and from the authorities who have already recognized failings”. Romain Jordan believes that he belongs to the public prosecutor “to carry out without delay the necessary investigations in order to remedy this”.

The case is surrounded by numerous questions about what could have led to the tragedy, but also by controversies, in particular on the absence of measures to deprive the owners of the bar until now, or the fact that the Le Constellation establishment has not been controlled since 2019.

According to the first elements of the investigation, the tragedy was caused by sparkling candles, known as “fountains“, came into contact with the ceiling of the basement of the bar, at the bottom of a building in the wealthy resort of Valais.“widespread conflagration” and suddenly the premises then allegedly trapped the customers, mainly teenagers and young adults.

The fire on New Year’s Eve in the bar left 40 dead and 116 injured.