Alleged Plan to Strike Belgian Prime Minister Thwarted
Belgium's law enforcement have arrested three individuals allegedly involved in plotting an attack on the country's PM, Bart de Wever.
Legal authorities characterized the suspected plan as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the PM and other government officials.
During investigations conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, in proximity to the premier's home, officials uncovered a suspected homemade bomb and indications that the suspects were intending to deploy a UAV.
While the planned victims of the assault were not publicly identified by the legal authorities, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot stated that the prime minister was included in the targets.
"The news of a planned strike aimed at Premier Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," Prevot stated in a post on online platforms on Thursday.
"This underscores that we are facing a genuine terrorism risk and that we have to keep watchful," he continued.
The three individuals detained on charges of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the operations of a jihadist network all live in the city of Antwerp, per the prosecutor's office. They were with years of birth in three different years between 2001 and 2007.
As of late Thursday, one person was released, while two others were undergoing questioning and likely to face a judge on the next day.
Federal prosecutors said that the suspects were taken into custody after a magistrate directed searches of their dwellings in the urban area by officials supported by explosives-trained dogs.
In the course of these raids that they located a object which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", legal representative Ann Fransen announced at a press conference on the day of the events.
Raids also found a collection of ball bearings and a three-dimensional printer, with evidence suggesting drone-based payload delivery, she continued.
Fransen disclosed that there had been 80 terrorism investigations initiated in the country in the current year - surpassing the total number of instances in 2024.
In April, five suspects were sentenced for a 2023 plot to strike De Wever while he was serving as Antwerp's mayor.
