Crans-Montana massacre, Sion prosecutor's office opens investigation into leak of information

The Sion prosecutor's office is trying to stem the media exposure of the investigation into the New Year's Eve massacre in Crans-Montana, in which 41 people died and 115 were injured. It does so by opening another investigation: aimed at those responsible not for the New Year's Eve tragedy, but for the alleged leaks relating to the main judicial proceedings. And civil lawyers and journalists are now being targeted. But there are those who hypothesize that the defense is preparing the ground to then ask the trial judge for a reduction in the sentence, justifying it precisely with the intense journalistic campaign and the popular hatred generated against the defendants. This would be permitted by extensive jurisprudence regarding article 47 of the Swiss penal code on the commensurate punishment.

Reports mainly from the lawyers of the suspects

The new file, against unknown persons - according to what Ansa has learned - is held by Laurent Mosching, delegated by the Deputy Attorney General Catherine Seppey. Various complaints and reports are coming together, filed mainly by the lawyers of the suspects, who complain about the dissemination to the press of documents and information classified by the prosecutor's office. Among the documents transferred to the prosecutor Mosching there is also the criminal complaint from the Organization cantonale valaisanne des secours for the disclosure of the audio of the telephone calls received to the emergency medical number in the minutes immediately following the fire. But not only that. The lawyers of some of the main suspects have opened a new front of conflict, sending voluminous press reviews to the prosecutor's office to urgently request measures to prevent leaks of information and to identify and sanction the authors. According to them, excerpts from the interrogations and passages from some key documents of the complicated investigation should not be published in the media, to protect the image of their clients and to avoid influencing the judicial authorities and witnesses, who are not allowed access to the documents.

Civil parties and journalists are at the center of attention

The measures adopted so far would therefore not be sufficient, including the secure electronic transfer of investigation materials and the control and security measures to which the lawyers and civil parties are subject during the hearings, which take place in a highly armored classroom of the Sion Polytechnic. So much so that during an interrogation a lawyer was even forced by the police to delete a photo taken during the hearing. The prosecutor involved in this new area was provided with some relevant investigative tools, such as postal tracking data and metadata relating to electronic transfers of the file. The center of attention therefore are the civil parties, who have access to the documents, but also the journalists who, according to some signatories of the reports, could even be accused of violating the Swiss penal code regarding the publication of secret official proceedings.