A member of the European Parliament from the conservative Hungarian party Fidesz has apologized after being busted - allegedly with drugs in his bag - after attending an "irresponsible" party that flouted Belgian coronavirus regulations.
Jozsef Szajer, one of the ideologists of Primer MInister Viktor Orban's ultra-conservative party, confirmed his attendance in a statement on Tuesday, saying that he deeply regrets "violating the Covid restrictions."
"It was irresponsible on my part. I am ready to stand for the fine that occurs," Szajer added, apologizing to his family, colleagues and voters.
The Belgian press is widely calling the event a sex party in which about 25 people were participating, most of them men. Some of them were naked when the police arrived. However, there has been no official public statement to this effect.
According to the Brussels Public Prosecutors' office, police broke up a party of roughly 20 people on Friday night in the centre of the Belgian capital - home to most major EU institutions - following a noise complaint.
Two of those people invoked diplomatic immunity, the prosecutors' spokesperson Sarah Durand said in a statement on Tuesday.
Escaping along a gutter
A passer-by identified another man he had seen escaping along a gutter, she added.
That individual - who appears to be Szajer based on his own statement - had bloody hands and narcotics were found in his backpack, Durand noted. "It is possible that he may have been injured while fleeing," she added.
"According to the police they found extasy pill (sic)," the 59-year-old politician, who resigned his post over the weekend, acknowleged. Szajer denies that the drugs were his.
All of those present were written up for breaking coronavirus containment rules, the prosecutors' statement said, but criminal proceedings can only be started if those involved have their diplomatic or parliamentary immunity waived.
