Vincent Van Quickenborne insists he did not know what his guests had done.
Belgian justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne has landed in hot water after three of his friends who were attending his 50th birthday party last month were caught on CCTV urinating on an empty police van. On Thursday, the minister appeared before the parliament and issued an apology for the incident which is being dubbed as "Pipigate" by local media.
According to the BBC, at the hearing, Mr Quickenborne insisted he was helping police investigate the disrespectful assault on their vehicle by telling three friends suspected of being the culprits to hand themselves in. The minister also denied that the footage showed him mocking the incident by laughing with someone and pretending to urinate. "I wasn't pretending to pee; I was just playing air guitar," he said as per the outlet.
Now, here's what we know about the "Pipigate" scandal
Three of Mr Quickenborne's guests, invited to his house to celebrate his 50th birthday, were caught on camera urinating on police vans parked by the minister's home.
Initially, the minister's office released a statement saying that Mr Quickenborne "Disapproves of this behaviour" and that he was not "present" at the time of the incident or aware that it had happened. However, footage released later disputed his claim as it showed the minister walking outside, standing on the sidewalk, leaning back and "pretending to pee".
According to Politico, Mr Quickenborne has since come forward with his own video clip. He reportedly said that the video shows him making a movement, but that it was more likely a "guitar move," not a "pee movement".
"Some say these images show me in the act of mimicking the act of peeing. The person I was accompanying thinks...it is an air guitar solo...I admit I play air guitar some times...It is possible, I honestly do not know," the Belgian justice minister told the parliament.
Mr Quickenborne has also insisted that he did not know what his guests had done to the police van and that he has nothing to hide. He addressed the seriousness of the issue, telling parliament on Thursday, "I am ashamed that people I invited [to] my house peed against a police van... it is disgusting, especially considering why the van is there."
Notably, Mr Quickenborne and his family have been granted round-the-clock police protection after a failed attempt to kidnap him last year.
Now, an investigation into the incident has been launched by the public prosecutor's office in the city of Kortrijk. He reportedly told the committee he had helped the investigation by asking those accused to come forward.
But the opposition politicians have condemned his behaviour and questioned his version of events. "You have given a whole new dimension to the concept of the Belgian joke," said opposition party N-VA's Yngvild Ingels.
Meanwhile, the NSPV police union released a scathing statement which said that Van Quickenborne was "unworthy" of being the minister of justice, as per BBC.