GENEVA: The owner of a Swiss bar that was engulfed in a deadly New Year’s Day fire was released from detention on bail on Friday, court authorities said, prompting anger and incomprehension from victims’ families and Italy’s prime minister.
Jacques Moretti and his wife Jessica are under investigation for negligent homicide and other crimes linked to the blaze that killed 40 people and injured more than 100, many of them teenagers. Many of the survivors are still hospitalized with severe burns in hospitals across Europe.
Jacques Moretti was detained on January 9. His bail arrangements include a 200,000 Swiss franc ($253,485) payment and an order to report daily to a police station, the court said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the decision to release him “an affront to the memory of the victims of the New Year’s Eve tragedy and an insult to their families, who are suffering from the loss of their loved ones.”
“The Italian government will demand answers from the Swiss authorities about what happened,” she wrote on X. Six of the dead were Italian as were 10 of those injured.
Lawyers for the victims and their families also said they were struggling to understand the court order and said their clients were concerned about evidence disappearing.
“My clients note that once again no consideration has been given to the risk of collusion or the disappearance of evidence — a risk that greatly worries them and jeopardizes the integrity of the proceedings,” said Romain Jordan, a Swiss lawyer for over 20 families of victims.
The owners have both expressed grief over the tragedy and said they would cooperate with prosecutors.
“Jessica and Jacques Moretti will both continue to comply with all requests from the authorities,” their lawyers said in a written statement after the release order.
Prosecutors said they had interviewed the bar owners about safety issues and renovations of Le Constellation bar during two hearings that had each lasted more than 10 hours.
They had also ordered searches, secured evidence and seized assets, they added.
Swiss bar owner released on bail after deadly New Year’s fire, prompting outcry
https://arab.news/rsrfh
Swiss bar owner released on bail after deadly New Year’s fire, prompting outcry
- Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni calls decision ‘insult’ to victims’ families
- Victims’ families concerned about evidence disappearing
EU leaders begin India visit ahead of ‘mother of all deals’ trade pact
- Antonio Luis Santos da Costa, Ursula von der Leyen are chief guests at Republic Day function
- Access to EU market will help mitigate India’s loss of access to US following Trump’s tariffs
New Delhi: Europe’s top leaders have arrived in New Delhi to participate in Republic Day celebrations on Monday, ahead of a key EU-India Summit and the conclusion of a long-sought free trade agreement.
European Council President Antonio Luis Santos da Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in India over the weekend, invited as chief guests of the 77th Republic Day parade.
They will hold talks on Tuesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the EU-India Summit, where they are expected to announce a comprehensive trade agreement after years of stalled negotiations.
Von der Leyen called it the “mother of all deals” at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week — a reference made earlier by India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal — as it will create a market of 2 billion people.
“The India-EU FTA has been a long time coming as negotiations have been going on between the two for more than a decade. Some of the red lines that prevented the signing of the FTA continue to this date, but it seems that the trade negotiations have found a way around it,” said Anupam Manur, professor of economics at the Takshashila Institution.
“The main contentious issue remains the Indian government’s desire to protect the farmers and dairy producers from competition and the European Union’s strict climate-based rules and taxation. Despite this, both see enormous value in the trade deal.”
India already has free trade agreements with more than a dozen countries, including Australia, the UAE, and Japan.
The pact with the EU would be its third in less than a year, after it signed a multibillion CEPA (comprehensive economic partnership agreement) with the UK in July and another with Oman in December. A week after the Oman deal, New Delhi also concluded negotiations on a free trade agreement with New Zealand, as it races to secure strategic and trade ties with the rest of the world, after US President Donald Trump slapped it with 50 percent tariffs.
The EU is also facing tariff uncertainty. Earlier this month Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on several EU countries unless they supported his efforts to take over Greenland, which is an autonomous region of Denmark.
“The expediting factor in the trade deal is the unilateral and economically irrational trade decisions taken by their biggest trading partner, the United States,” Manur told Arab News.
Being subject to the highest tariff rates, India has been required to sign FTAs with other major economies. Access to the EU market would help mitigate the loss of access to the US.
The EU is India’s largest trading partner in goods, accounting for about $136 billion in the financial year 2024-25.
Before the tariffs, India enjoyed a $45 billion trade surplus with the US, exporting nearly $80 billion. To the EU’s 27 member states, it exports about $75 billion.
“This can be sizably increased after the FTA,” Manur said. “Purely in value terms, this would be the biggest FTA for India, surpassing the successful FTAs with the UK, Australia, Oman and the UAE.”
