Reported Plan to Target Belgian Prime Minister Prevented
Belgium's police have taken into custody three individuals allegedly involved in conspiring to carry out an assault on the country's premier, Bart de Wever.
Federal prosecutors labeled the suspected scheme as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the premier and other politicians.
During raids conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, in proximity to the premier's home, investigators found a potential IED and evidence that the individuals were planning to use a unmanned aerial vehicle.
While the intended targets of the strike were not publicly identified by the prosecutor's office, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot revealed that Belgium's leader was one of them.
"Reports of a planned assault targeting Prime Minister Bart de Wever is extremely shocking," the deputy prime minister stated in a update on X on Thursday.
"This underscores that we are confronting a serious terrorism risk and that we have to keep watchful," he concluded.
The three people arrested on charges of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group all are based in the city of Antwerp, according to the legal authorities. They were with years of birth in the early 2000s.
On Thursday evening, one person was freed, while the other suspects were undergoing questioning and likely to appear in court on the following day.
Federal prosecutors revealed that the suspects were arrested after a judge ordered raids of their dwellings in the city by law enforcement supported by explosives-trained dogs.
In the course of these searches that they located a object which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", federal prosecutor Ann Fransen said at a press conference on Thursday.
Investigations also revealed a collection of ball bearings and a additive manufacturing device, with evidence suggesting drone-based payload delivery, she continued.
The prosecutor stated that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases launched in the country in the current year - surpassing the full amount of investigations in last year.
In April, five individuals were convicted for a previous year's plan to strike the prime minister while he was acting as the city's chief executive.
