Alleged Plan to Target Belgian Premier Thwarted
Belgian law enforcement have arrested three suspects allegedly involved in conspiring to carry out an strike on the country's prime minister, Bart de Wever.
Prosecutors characterized the reported scheme as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the prime minister and additional government officials.
During searches conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, near the PM's private residence, officials found a potential homemade bomb and indications that the accused were preparing to employ a UAV.
While the intended targets of the strike were not publicly identified by the prosecutor's office, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot stated that Belgium's leader was one of them.
"Information of a premeditated assault aimed at Prime Minister Bart de Wever is extremely shocking," Prevot declared in a message on social media on the investigation day.
"This underscores that we are confronting a serious terrorism risk and that we have to stay alert," he concluded.
The three individuals taken into custody on charges of terrorism-related attempted murder and participation in the operations of a jihadist network all reside in the city of Antwerp, per the prosecutor's office. They were had birth years in 2001, 2002 and 2007.
As of the evening of the arrests, one of the individuals was released, while two others were undergoing questioning and expected to appear in court on the following day.
Federal prosecutors said that the accused were taken into custody after a magistrate directed inspections of their residences in the city by law enforcement supported by bomb detection canines.
In the course of these raids that they located a item which closely resembled a homemade bomb, federal prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a press conference on that day.
Raids also uncovered a "bag of steel balls" and a 3D printer, with evidence suggesting drone-based payload delivery, she added.
Fransen said that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases initiated in the nation so far this year - more than the full amount of cases in 2024.
In April, five people were sentenced for a 2023 plot to target the prime minister while he was serving as Antwerp's mayor.
