KWRO files charges for passing on emergency call audios
Keystone-SDA
A Swiss rescue organisation has filed charges against persons unknown in connection with the criminal investigation into the Crans-Montana fire disaster.
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
The complaint relates to a deadly fire at a bar in canton Valais on New Year’s Eve that claimed 41 lives.
The Valais Cantonal Rescue Organisation suspects that internal documents were released without authorisation.
+ Crans-Montana tragedy highlights limits of Swiss federal system
The Sonntagszeitung newspaper first reported on the complaint. According to the article, it is directed against lawyers and investigators involved in the proceedings as well as the public prosecutor’s office.
Professional and official confidentiality and the Data Protection Act are alleged to have been violated. The rescue group and the Valais Attorney General confirmed the charges on Sunday at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency, without providing any further details.
+ ‘For us, 2026 doesn’t exist’: parent of Swiss bar fire victim
The rescue organisation said it would not comment further while the investigation was ongoing. The organisation is cooperating with the public prosecutor’s office responsible for the case.
According to the Sonntagszeitung newspaper, it is alleged that the audio recordings of the emergency phone calls on New Year’s Eve were not vetted before being passed on to the victims’ lawyers.
As a result, medical data unrelated to the fire disaster ended up in the hands of the victims’ lawyers. The corresponding files were then published on French-language news websites and later throughout Switzerland.
More
More
Crans-Montana fire: Recalled Italian ambassador will return to Switzerland
Adapted from German by AI/mga
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch.
