Reported Scheme to Strike Belgian Premier Thwarted
Belgian law enforcement have detained three people suspected of conspiring to carry out an attack on the government's PM, Bart de Wever.
Federal prosecutors described the alleged plot as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the PM and fellow government officials.
During investigations conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, near the prime minister's home, officials found a alleged homemade bomb and proof that the individuals were preparing to deploy a drone.
While the planned victims of the assault were not officially named by the legal authorities, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot revealed that de Wever was included in the targets.
"Information of a intended attack aimed at PM Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the deputy prime minister declared in a update on social media on the day of the arrests.
"It emphasizes that we are confronting a genuine extremist danger and that we have to keep watchful," he continued.
The three individuals detained on suspicion of attempted terrorist murder and involvement in the operations of a extremist organization all live in Antwerp, per the federal prosecutors. They were had birth years in the early 2000s.
By the evening of the arrests, one of the individuals was freed, while the other suspects were still being questioned and scheduled to be presented before a court on Friday.
The prosecution revealed that the suspects were detained after a court official authorized raids of their dwellings in the urban area by police officers assisted by bomb detection canines.
In the course of these investigations that they discovered a device which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", federal prosecutor Ann Fransen announced at a press conference on the day of the events.
Searches also revealed a "bag of steel balls" and a additive manufacturing device, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she noted.
The prosecutor said that there had been 80 extremist probes launched in the nation so far this year - more than the full amount of investigations in 2024.
Earlier this year, five individuals were found guilty for a 2023 plot to strike the prime minister while he was holding the position of Antwerp's mayor.
