Fire disaster Rome investigators find out about Crans-Montana investigation
Six investigators from the public prosecutor's office in Rome arrive in Valais on Wednesday. They will be given access to the investigation documents relating to the fire disaster in Crans-Montana on New Year's Day.
25.03.2026, 08:06
SDA
The Italian delegation of judges and police officers will be in Sion for two days. "The investigation team from the public prosecutor's office in Rome will be accompanied by an interpreter and will have access to all the documents in the file, which comprises several thousand pages," explained Beatrice Pilloud, Attorney General of the Canton of Valais, to the Keystone-SDA news agency on request.
The Italian investigators could inspect the documents, but not make copies of them. In order to obtain a copy of the documents, which do not contain any names, the public prosecutor's office in Rome must obtain a procedural order from the Valais public prosecutor's office. With this interim order, the documents can then be sent to Italy.
With the consent of the named persons
In the case of documents in which names and first names are listed, the Valais public prosecutor's office must also obtain the consent of the named persons. They must agree to the documents being forwarded to the Italian investigators. Subsequently, the Valais public prosecutor's office will again issue interim decisions and can then forward these documents to its colleagues - or not.
However, the documents may only be used by the public prosecutor's office in Rome once the decision on the conclusion of an international request for mutual legal assistance has been made.
Promises kept
A Swiss and an Italian delegation led by Beatrice Pilloud and her Roman counterpart Francesco Lo Voi had already met on February 19 at the premises of the Federal Office of Justice in Bern. At that meeting, the Attorney General of Valais reaffirmed the decision of the Public Prosecutor's Office to grant a request for mutual legal assistance submitted by the Public Prosecutor's Office in Rome on January 30 of this year.
At the meeting, the parties also confirmed that the public prosecutor's office of the Canton of Valais would retain control of the proceedings on Swiss territory and would decide, among other things, what evidence would be collected and whether the Italian investigators would be present when it was obtained. This was subsequently announced by the Federal Office of Justice.
Increased cooperation
The arrival of Italian investigators in Sion this week confirms the will of the investigating authorities to cooperate more closely in order to move the investigation forward. Among the 41 victims and 115 injured in the "Le Constellation" bar accident are six dead and several injured people from Italy.
