Second inferno bar owner held in Switzerland

The French co-owner of a Swiss bar which went up in flames during New Year celebrations has been forbidden from leaving the country, the cantonal authorities said on Tuesday.

The court in the southwestern Wallis canton said it had imposed the travel ban on Jessica Moretti, who along with her husband Jacques owned Le Constellation bar in the ski resort of Crans-Montana, as an alternative to pre-trial detention "due to the risk of flight".

It comes a day after Jacques Moretti was detained as part of the investigation into the blaze, which killed 40 people and wounded 116 after ripping through the packed bar early on New Year's Day. Most of the dead were teenagers.

Lawyers for the victims' families, who have been harshly critical of proceedings, have been demanding that the pair be detained from the outset.

Despite her husband being held on the grounds that he was also deemed a flight risk, the Wallis Cantonal Court of Compulsory Measures (TMC) argued that it could not remand Jessica Moretti in custody because the public prosecutor's office had not requested it.

Besides the ban on leaving the Alpine nation, Jessica Moretti has been obliged since Monday to deposit all identity and residence documents with the public prosecutor's office, to report daily to a police station and to post bail, the court said.

The bail's exact value is to be determined at a later date, it added.