Alleged Plan to Strike Belgian Premier Prevented
Belgium's authorities have arrested three suspects accused of plotting an attack on the government's PM, Bart de Wever.
Legal authorities labeled the suspected plot as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the prime minister and additional government officials.
During searches conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, in proximity to the PM's home, investigators discovered a suspected IED and proof that the individuals were preparing to employ a unmanned aerial vehicle.
While the planned victims of the attack were not officially named by the legal authorities, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot revealed that Belgium's leader was one of them.
"Information of a premeditated strike targeting Premier Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," Prevot declared in a post on X on the day of the arrests.
"It highlights that we are confronting a very real terrorism risk and that we have to keep watchful," he continued.
The three individuals detained on suspicion of plotting a terrorist killing and engagement in the operations of a jihadist network all live in the Antwerp region, according to the legal authorities. They were born in the early 2000s.
As of the evening of the arrests, one person was freed, while the remaining two were undergoing questioning and expected to be presented before a court on the following day.
Legal authorities revealed that the accused were arrested after a judge authorized raids of their dwellings in the location by law enforcement supported by explosives-trained dogs.
It was during these investigations that they found a object which appeared to be an IED, legal representative Ann Fransen stated at a press conference on Thursday.
Searches also revealed a collection of ball bearings and a additive manufacturing device, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she added.
The prosecutor said that there had been 80 terrorism investigations initiated in the country this year - more than the full amount of cases in last year.
Earlier this year, five people were convicted for a 2023 plot to attack the prime minister while he was serving as Antwerp's mayor.