Reported Plot to Target Belgian Premier Prevented
Belgian police have arrested three individuals allegedly involved in conspiring to carry out an assault on the government's premier, Bart de Wever.
Legal authorities labeled the suspected plan as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the premier and fellow elected representatives.
During searches conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, close to the prime minister's private residence, investigators discovered a alleged improvised explosive device and evidence that the individuals were planning to deploy a unmanned aerial vehicle.
While the planned victims of the strike were not officially named by the federal prosecutors, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot stated that de Wever was included in the targets.
"The news of a intended strike targeting Premier Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," Prevot declared in a message on online platforms on Thursday.
"This underscores that we are dealing with a genuine terrorism risk and that we have to keep watchful," he added.
The three individuals detained on suspicion of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the functions of a terrorist group all are based in Antwerp, according to the federal prosecutors. They were had birth years in 2001, 2002 and 2007.
On late Thursday, one suspect was freed, while the remaining two were still being questioned and scheduled to be presented before a court on the following day.
Federal prosecutors said that the accused were arrested after a magistrate directed inspections of their homes in the city by police officers supported by bomb detection canines.
It was during these raids that they discovered a object which appeared to be an IED, lead prosecutor Ann Fransen said at a media briefing on Thursday.
Searches also found a "bag of steel balls" and a additive manufacturing device, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she added.
The official disclosed that there had been 80 extremist probes opened in Belgium in the current year - more than the full amount of investigations in the previous year.
In April, five suspects were sentenced for a 2023 plot to target De Wever while he was acting as the mayor of Antwerp.
