Reported Scheme to Attack Belgian Premier Foiled
Belgian police have detained three people suspected of conspiring to carry out an assault on the nation's PM, Bart de Wever.
Prosecutors characterized the suspected scheme as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the prime minister and additional government officials.
During searches conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, close to the PM's private residence, officials discovered a suspected homemade bomb and indications that the individuals were planning to employ a unmanned aerial vehicle.
While the planned victims of the strike were not disclosed by name by the legal authorities, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot confirmed that Belgium's leader was one of them.
"Information of a planned attack aimed at Premier Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," the deputy prime minister declared in a update on online platforms on Thursday.
"It highlights that we are dealing with a genuine extremist danger and that we have to keep watchful," he continued.
The three suspects taken into custody on charges of attempted terrorist murder and engagement in the operations of a terrorist group all are based in Antwerp, per the legal authorities. They were with years of birth in 2001, 2002 and 2007.
As of Thursday evening, one suspect was released, while the other suspects were still being questioned and expected to appear in court on the next day.
Federal prosecutors said that the individuals were detained after a judge authorized raids of their residences in the location by officials assisted by explosive sniffer dogs.
It was during these searches that they located a object which appeared to be an IED, legal representative Ann Fransen announced at a media briefing on Thursday.
Investigations also found a "bag of steel balls" and a additive manufacturing device, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she added.
The official said that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases launched in the country in the current year - more than the overall count of cases in the previous year.
Earlier this year, five suspects were sentenced for a 2023 plot to strike De Wever while he was serving as Antwerp's mayor.
