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Italy’s government said on Wednesday that it had filed to be a civil party in the criminal proceedings surrounding a devastating fire at a bar in Switzerland which killed 41 people, including six Italians.
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The civil claim was prompted by “the substantial resources” used for “medical, psychological and logistical assistance to the Italian nationals involved,” the government said in a statement.
The blaze at Le Constellation, a bar in the upmarket Alpine resort, broke out in the early hours of 1 January as people celebrated the New Year.
Prosecutors believe the New Year’s Eve fire started when champagne bottles with sparklers attached were raised too close to the ceiling in the bar’s basement level, igniting the sound-insulation foam.
A total of 41 people, most of them teenagers, were killed and another 115 were injured in the disaster.
The bar’s owners, Jacques and Jessica Moretti, face charges in Switzerland of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson.
They have twice been questioned at length by public prosecutors and lawyers for the civil parties.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has vowed justice for Italian victims while Italy has opened its own investigation into the fire even as the Swiss probe continues.
The Swiss investigation has revealed that no annual safety check had been carried out at the bar since 2019.
In its statement, the Italian government said that “the involvement of local authorities in the genesis of the event is considered highly probable.”
That, it said, justified “the firm demand for compensation against all parties held civilly liable.”
It said Italy would continue to monitor the Swiss legal proceedings, while confirming the government’s “full and uninterrupted support” for the victims’ families.
Earlier in April, Meloni issued a sharp rebuke of a Swiss hospital for allegedly billing the families of some of the victims.
“I spoke with our ambassador: the Swiss authorities have assured us that it was a mistake, and that the families will not have to pay anything,” Meloni wrote in a post on X.
“But I asked the ambassador to maintain the highest level of attention to this issue, because it would be abhorrent for costs like these to fall on the victims or on Italy.”
Meloni also said that one hospital in Sion had demanded €70,000 for patients hospitalised for only a few hours, which she called “an insult on top of a mockery.”
Additional sources • AFP
