After three guests at Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne's birthday party allegedly urinated against a parked police van, the Public Prosecutor's Office has launched a criminal investigation following a complaint of defamation against the police.
The incident reportedly took place on 14 August, during a birthday party at Van Quickenborne's home, VRT reports. During the party, three guests allegedly urinated against a parked (empty) police van, which was parked near the minister's residence.
"We are working hard to protect the minister and his family, this is not funny to us," sources within the police told VRT, adding that the incident was "painful."
Van Quickenborne and his family are under police protection since an attempted kidnapping was thwarted in September last year when two vehicles were intercepted by local police. In one of the vehicles, bottles of petrol, an automatic rifle, two handguns and plastic bands with which you can tie someone up were found. Afterwards, the family had to go into hiding for some time and even spent the end-of-year period in a safe house.
'Disgraceful'
To this day, various security measures still apply: both Van Quickenborne's house and the street where he lives are under camera surveillance, for example. However, this also means the men urinating against the police van were caught on video. A police report for defamation was drawn up, and the West Flanders Public Prosecutor's Office has since launched an investigation, Het Nieuwsblad reports.
"The investigation will be conducted by another police zone since the Vlas police locale (which is responsible for Van Quickenborne's security) is the affected party," said Tom Janssens of the Public Prosecutor's Office. "The video footage will be identified and screenshots taken to identify possible perpetrators."
In a written statement, Van Quickenborne's office said that the minister "disapproves of this behaviour," while also underlining that the incident "allegedly took place on the public road."
"Prosecutors and police must now continue their work, with a view to prosecution. But the office wants to make it clear: the minister was not present when the alleged acts took place and was not aware of them." In the meantime, the Prosecutor's Office confirmed that Van Quickenborne could not be seen in the video footage at the time of the incident in question.
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The incident is "disgraceful" and "unworthy of a democratic constitutional state," said police union NSPV. "The police van is the externalisation of our job, it is a symbol. We find it downright sad that people urinate against it. And that this is done in front of the minister's residence, that is really not okay."
"One just puts our officers to shame," the union said. "Some will argue that these are some people who were drunk and then committed a stupid act. We argue that this is a mockery of our police, not a slap in the face but rather a punch to our police officers."
"This is just a lack of any respect for the ladies and gentlemen in uniform, who do their best every day to keep the streets of Kortrijk (where Van Quickenborne lives) and by extension the whole country clean," they added. "We leave it to the politicians to judge whether the police as an institution have been put to shame and whether measures should be taken."
