Alleged Scheme to Target Belgian Premier Foiled
Belgian authorities have taken into custody three people suspected of planning an assault on the country's PM, Bart de Wever.
Legal authorities characterized the suspected scheme as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the PM and additional elected representatives.
During raids conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, near the premier's personal dwelling, officials discovered a potential homemade bomb and indications that the suspects were planning to employ a unmanned aerial vehicle.
While the intended targets of the assault were not disclosed by name by the federal prosecutors, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot confirmed that de Wever was one of them.
"The news of a premeditated strike directed toward Prime Minister Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the deputy prime minister declared in a post on online platforms on the day of the arrests.
"This underscores that we are confronting a genuine terrorism risk and that we have to keep watchful," he added.
The three individuals detained on suspicion of plotting a terrorist killing and involvement in the activities of a extremist organization all live in the city of Antwerp, as stated by the legal authorities. They were with years of birth in three different years between 2001 and 2007.
As of the evening of the arrests, one of the individuals was freed, while two others were still being questioned and likely to appear in court on the next day.
Federal prosecutors revealed that the suspects were taken into custody after a magistrate ordered searches of their homes in the city by police officers assisted by bomb detection canines.
Throughout these investigations that they found a object which appeared to be an IED, lead prosecutor Ann Fransen announced at a news conference on Thursday.
Searches also uncovered a container of metal spheres and a 3D printer, with evidence suggesting drone-based payload delivery, she added.
The prosecutor stated that there had been 80 terrorism investigations initiated in the country so far this year - exceeding the full amount of instances in last year.
During the spring, five people were sentenced for a 2023 plot to attack Belgium's leader while he was holding the position of the mayor of Antwerp.