The 26-year-old soldier allegedly tried to seduce the girlfriend of one of his attackers. Two suspects were arrested, a third is still at large.
A young soldier is between life and death after being attacked leaving a nightclub in Besançon for having made advances towards a young woman, the prosecutor announced on Tuesday, specifying that two suspects are incarcerated. This 26-year-old soldier from the 19th Engineer Regiment of Besançon, originally from Guadeloupe, is hospitalized “brain dead”specified the Besançon prosecutor, Étienne Manteaux, during a press conference. “His death has not yet been pronounced but his life expectancy is almost reduced to zero, due to the severity of his brain damage”he added.
Friday, around 3:50 a.m., the man was discovered unconscious in the parking lot of the QG nightclub. During his hospitalization, doctors noted serious brain damage. Video surveillance images from the nightclub allowed the police to note that a fight had taken place between the young man and three individuals. Struck standing up, he fell and his skull violently hit the ground, then his attackers inflicted several kicks on him, notably to the head.
Two suspects incarcerated
The investigation entrusted to the local judicial police service (SLPJ) made it possible to identify three suspects. One of them is on the run and two others, aged 19, have been arrested. They explained that this young soldier had “tried an approach of seduction” near a young girl, the girlfriend of the man on the run, asking her for her mobile number twice, “what displeased the boyfriend”according to Mr. Manteaux. Both suspects admitted to hitting the victim. They were indicted for “intentional violence in a meeting resulting in permanent disability” and incarcerated. This qualification will change in the event of the victim's death.
One of them has already been convicted six times, including two for aggravated violence. The interregional director of the national police (DIPN) of Doubs, Laurent Perraut, castigated a “particularly violent and unjust aggression”promising to “put a lot of resources into finding the third man on the run”. The prefect of Doubs, Rémi Bastille, decided to “administratively close this nightclub for a period of 30 days”suite “to the numerous acts of violence which were committed upon leaving the establishment” in recent months, as well as “multiple complaints from local residents for nuisance”.
