one month later, the night establishment will reopen, but under surveillance

The temporary closure decided by the prefect of Doubs has come to an end: on December 12, 2024, the nightclub Le QG will reopen its doors in Besançon (Doubs), 30 days after the death of a young soldier following a visit to tobacco in front of the establishment. A reopening nevertheless supervised by the city of Besançon to avoid any further drama.

More than a month after the tragedy, the nightclub Le QG, in Besançon (Doubs), will be able to reopen its doors on Thursday December 12, 2024. The temporary one-month closure decided by the Doubs prefecture for “violations of ‘repeated public order’ will thus come to an end.

As a reminder, this decision by the authorities was taken following a violent brawl, which occurred on the night of November 7 to 8. A young Guadeloupean soldier aged 26, Mérick Mathoré, was beaten by three men as he left the HQ and left brain dead. This pushed the prefecture to close the establishment.

A few days later, on November 13, the victim died. The reopening of the nightclub, a surprise for some given the various news items linked to the establishment, will therefore be particularly supervised by the city of Besançon.

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“In France, we must respect the freedoms of commerce and industry, we cannot close the HQ like that and that is not what we want” explains Benoît Cypriani, deputy in charge of security and public peace at Besançon town hall. “But we can act by regulating the activity of this nightclub, through municipal decrees. This is what we did“.

Thus, in a decree published on December 9, 2024, the Bisontine municipality announces that activities at HQ are authorized “until 4 a.m. for a period of 6 months“. This means that from December 12, 2024 to June 11, 2025, the nightclub will have to close its doors at 4 a.m., instead of 6 a.m.

Considering that 80% of complaints or complaints from local residents concern events that occurred after 4 a.m., we hope that this will calm things down.

Benoit Cypriani

deputy in charge of security and public peace at Besançon town hall

“We still had several deaths in a few years leaving HQ“explains the chosen one.”We had to act.” In the decree, the municipality lists as follows:the numerous complaints addressed by local residents“in 2024”reporting nuisances and disturbances to public order“, “the results of acoustic measurements” or even eight minutes drawn up between 2022 and 2024 for “noise pollution and disturbances to public peace (fights between individuals and drinking on public roads)“.

“We spoke with the managers” continues Benoît Cypriani. “They don’t understand and say we want to kill their business. This is false. We just base ourselves on facts and we see that in other night establishments, like Le Teasing, there are not all these problems. The problem is that the HQ managers never question themselves. They ask us to find solutions for them. It doesn’t work like that“.

Symbol of these tense relations, the public security deputy announces that “police patrols will be sent at 4 a.m. to check the closure“. “We don’t trust them“says Benoît Cypriani.”So we’re going to keep a close eye on this.“.

We also asked the HQ to involve alcohol and drug risk prevention associations during their evening. And to improve the security of their parking lot. Let’s see if they will listen to us.

Benoît Cypriani

deputy in charge of security and public peace at Besançon town hall

When contacted, the HQ management did not respond to our requests. She nevertheless informed us that a press release would be published in reaction to this municipal decree. The establishment can also challenge this decision before the administrative court, as it did a few weeks ago to cancel the prefectural decree which obliged it to close for a month. To be continued.