Suspected Plan to Target Belgian Premier Foiled
Belgian law enforcement have arrested three people allegedly involved in planning an attack on the country's premier, Bart de Wever.
Legal authorities described the reported plan as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the PM and other government officials.
During searches conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, near the premier's personal dwelling, investigators found a suspected IED and proof that the accused were planning to employ a unmanned aerial vehicle.
While the intended targets of the assault were not officially named by the prosecutor's office, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot revealed that the prime minister was included in the targets.
"Information of a premeditated assault targeting Prime Minister Bart de Wever is extremely shocking," Prevot wrote in a post on online platforms on the day of the arrests.
"It highlights that we are confronting a very real terrorism risk and that we have to stay alert," he continued.
The three people detained on suspicion of attempted terrorist murder and involvement in the activities of a terrorist group all are based in the Antwerp region, according to the legal authorities. They were with years of birth in the early 2000s.
On Thursday evening, one of the individuals was let go, while the other suspects were still being questioned and scheduled to be presented before a court on the next day.
The prosecution said that the accused were arrested after a magistrate ordered searches of their residences in the city by officials backed by explosive sniffer dogs.
In the course of these searches that they located a object which appeared to be an IED, lead prosecutor Ann Fransen said at a news conference on that day.
Raids also revealed a collection of ball bearings and a three-dimensional printer, with evidence suggesting drone-based payload delivery, she noted.
The official said that there had been 80 terrorism investigations launched in the country in the current year - exceeding the overall count of cases in the previous year.
In April, five suspects were convicted for a 2023 plot to attack De Wever while he was holding the position of the city's chief executive.
