Overview
- The New Year blaze at Le Constellation in Crans-Montana left 40 dead and 116 injured, including minors, in one of Switzerland’s worst recent disasters.
- Chief prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud leads what her office calls its largest and most complex case as criticism grows over her management.
- Swiss media report that operational control was delegated early, victims’ lawyers lacked key updates, and no search was conducted at the municipality after the fire.
- Prosecutors opened a case against bar operator Jacques M. and his wife on suspicion of negligent homicide and negligent bodily injury, with Jacques M. jailed nine days after the disaster.
- The mayor acknowledged the municipality failed to check the bar’s fire safety from 2020 to 2025, and separate reports highlight the operator’s prior legal troubles in France.