But what could have happened on that cold October night in 2011 to make everything go so wrong? This is the question that the Nancy Criminal Court is trying to answer, which opened this week the trial of the Vairelles brothers, accused of having shot the bouncers of a nightclub in which the two youngest of the siblings spent the evening. Among the four accused, Tony Vairelles, eight times selected for the France team, unemployed since.
However, if the facts are difficult to dispute for the siblings, although bathed in memories blurred by alcohol, the night and the past ten years, it was the methods of the security guards who were called into question on Monday. Indeed, during the first day, the witnesses followed one another to say how the men of the bar were rough, even violent. According to The Teamthe defense lawyer even recalled that two complaints had been filed in 2010 against them.
A scenario that made the bouncers jump and in particular one of them, Peter Gerdum, who accused the Vairelles brothers of having “put pressure on witnesses“. This one then added that to “as long as bouncers do their job well, they cannot have a good reputation“, a sentence that did not really please the room, mainly against them.
Today, none of the three injured no longer works: two of them are in early retirement, the last, still disabled, has lost his job. They are also indicted for violence in meetings with weapons, in this case “a tear gas canister, security barriers and a truncheon“, facts punishable by five years’ imprisonment.
According to the Vairelles brothers, who remained very quiet throughout the day (especially Tony), it all started with an imbroglio with the bouncers of German and Sicilian origin over a drink on the track. According to him, while Giovan protests, explaining to the bouncer that not everyone is treated the same, he is hit by one of the security guards. “I took a punch, I went back, I took a flurry of punches“, said the man, now in his thirties. The security guard, Carlo, explains that he took the hits first.
The young man then went out”horizontally” according to witnesses, followed by his brother. After leaving the scene, the Vairelles brothers then returned armed, accompanied by Tony and Fabrice, 38 and 40 years old at the time and allegedly shot at the bouncers. Placed in prison just after the facts, they had been released on bail. And the rest of the trial, this week with the explanations of the siblings, already looks tense…