2023-09-08 15:23:43
An investigation into “contempt” has been opened following guests at the Belgian justice minister’s birthday were accused of urinating on a police car.
The Belgian Minister of Justice will surely remember his 50th birthday. Three of his guests are accused of having urinated on a police car parked in front of his home on the night of August 14 to 15.
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Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne was interviewed before Parliament on Thursday following the opening of an investigation on August 23. He told the Belgian Parliament that he did not see three guests at his birthday party urinating on a police van outside his home and apologized for the scandal-inducing incident.
“I would like to apologize to all police officers in the country […] I completely understand that this outraged them. This is absolutely unacceptable“, he declared during an extraordinary hearing which lasted three hours before the deputies of the Justice committee.
“I called them and insulted them“, this is what Vincent Van Quickenborne said to the three suspects. He assured that he had advanced the investigation by asking the three suspects to report to the public prosecutor’s office, who was able to have them interviewed.
The minister reveals his images
As soon as the affair broke out on August 23, with the revelations of several Flemish media having seen the images of the three guests relieving themselves on the van, Vincent Van Quickenborne assured that he had not been present at that time. and ignore all of these actions.
But on Monday September 4, the Flemish public channel VRT cast doubt on its version, on the basis of other images to which it had access.
The next day, the minister then decided to show another channel his own images, coming from cameras fixed on his home, where we see him visibly drunk escorting his latest guest to the doorstep at 4 a.m. .
In these images, we see the minister leaning back as if to mime the gesture of someone urinating, alongside his friend who seems hilarious.
Cautiously, the minister rather describes this gesture as “that of a guitar game“, affirming however that his mind was foggy at the time of the events.
He also claimed that his last guest, one of his best friends, had “nothing to do with the incidents” which marked his 50th birthday.
The affair, called “pipigate” by the Belgian media, puts this Flemish liberal official in difficulty, targeted by demands for resignation from several police unions.
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who made a brief appearance at the birthday party, was himself questioned on Thursday by a journalist during a press conference in Brussels which focused on another subject.
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