Three guests were caught urinating on a parked police van nearby. An investigation has been opened in Belgium after a birthday party at the home of Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne, the court said. The facts, which occurred on the night of August 14 to 15 in Kortrijk (North-West), when the minister was celebrating his 50th birthday with many guests, led the local police to file a complaint.
This led to a judicial investigation for “contempt” entrusted to the neighboring police area of Roeselare, said Tom Janssens, spokesman for the Kortrijk prosecutor’s office. Since the minister received threats in 2022, which he said came from drug trafficking circles, his home in Kortrijk has been under increased police surveillance, these special measures including video surveillance.
The ironic “Watergate scandal”
According to the newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, three tipsy men were filmed at the end of the night urinating on a van integrated into this device when they had just taken part in the birthday party. Vincent Van Quickenborne, who assured not to have witnessed the scene, said “obviously disapprove” of these facts.
“If the police have made findings, then they must be followed up,” added this Flemish liberal, in a reaction transmitted by his cabinet. A police union, the SNPS, judged the facts “unworthy of a Minister of Justice”, in a press release wielding irony and entitled “the Watergate scandal”. “It’s a punch against our police officers, a lack of respect for women and men in uniform”, also estimated the National Union of Police and Security Personnel (SNPS).