The owner of a Swiss bar that was destroyed in a deadly fire on New Year’s Eve has been arrested for domestic abuse against his wife.
The blaze killed 41 people and injured 115, with most of the casualties being teenagers.
French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti have been the focus of intense scrutiny since the fire ripped through their bar Le Constellation, in the Crans-Montana ski resort in the early hours of January 1.
They are among 16 people facing a criminal investigation over the fire.
Among the charges, they face manslaughter by negligence and arson by negligence over the fire.
However, it has emerged that Mr Moretti, 49 – a convicted pimp who has spent time in jail before – has now been arrested and detained over claims of violence against his wife earlier this month, local Geneva broadcaster Leman Bleu reported.
The incident reportedly happened on the night of August 11 at the couple’s home in Switzerland’s southwestern Wallis canton.
It was said to be so serious that Mrs Moretti, 41, had to be hospitalised.
Le Constellation owners Jacques and Jessica Moretti arrive to attend a hearing as part of the inquiry on February 11
The fire was allegedly triggered by sparklers in champagne bottles that ignited foam soundproof cladding in the ceiling
He was arrested at their home in Valais, Switzerland, and ‘placed in pre-trial detention,’ said an investigating source.
Moretti is now being held for a variety of domestic violence charges, before appearing in court later this year, according to multiple law and order sources who have spoken to the media in both Switzerland and France.
Neither the public prosecutor’s office nor the couple’s lawyers responded immediately to requests for comment.
The Morettis’ lawyers released a statement Sunday evening referring to the report, stressing that the alleged events were being investigated in a separate case pertaining ‘exclusively to their private life’.
‘They should not be confused with the Constellation tragedy,’ the lawyers said in the statement.
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’.
His trial will be entirely separate to the one in which both Morettis face convictions for their part in the fire.
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.
Mr Moretti was the registered owner of the Constellation, while his wife was managing it on the night of the inferno.
Cyane Panine, a 24-year-old waitress working in the bar held a champagne bottle with candles attached high up in the basement, igniting the ceiling, video footage has shown.
There was mass panic, and those who died trying to get out of the building included Ms Panine.
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.
Owners of Le Constellation bar Jacques Moretti and Jessica Moretti arrive for a hearing at the Office of the public prosecutor of the Canton of Valais, in Sion, on January 9, 2026
Jessica Moretti, one of the owners of Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, pictured in February
A total of 16 people have been charged in relation to the Constellation fire, including local councillors who granted licences to the Morettis.
Mr Moretti was briefly held in a cell from January 9 in connection with the fire, but was then released on bail worth the equivalent of just under £200,000.
A French court also sentenced Mr Moretti to a year in prison, with eight suspended, for ‘aggravated pimping’ in 2008.
It is not known how long he will be held following the latest allegations against him, and his wife’s medical condition also remains unknown.
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.
It led up from the basement, where the fire was allegedly triggered by sparklers in champagne bottles that ignited foam soundproof cladding in the ceiling.
‘This amounts to 85 per cent of the dead,’ said one enquiry source. ‘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’.
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.
The sparklers are thought to have lit soundproofing foam in the ceiling, triggering a massive fire in which, beyond the dead, 115 others were also severely burned.
Mr Moretti’s wife 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 couple previously described the last minutes of waitress Cyane Panine’s life, saying it encapsulated the full horror of the evening.
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’
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
Cyane, who they viewed as a stepdaughter, had been encouraged by Ms 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.
Following the devastating blaze, Mr Moretti eventually broke open the door to the basement from the outside, and found Cyane dying, while surrounded by ‘a pile of bodies’.
Recalling how he found Cyane dying, 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.’
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.
‘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.’
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’.
The criminal investigations into the fire, and the alleged domestic abuse, continue.
