Alleged Plot to Target Belgian PM Foiled
Belgian authorities have detained three suspects allegedly involved in planning an strike on the government's prime minister, Bart de Wever.
Federal prosecutors characterized the alleged plan as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the prime minister and other elected representatives.
During raids conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, near the prime minister's home, authorities uncovered a alleged homemade bomb and proof that the individuals were intending to deploy a drone.
While the intended targets of the attack were not disclosed by name by the legal authorities, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot stated that the prime minister was included in the targets.
"Reports of a planned strike targeting PM Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," Prevot declared in a message on X on Thursday.
"It highlights that we are dealing with a very real terrorist threat and that we have to keep watchful," he added.
The three suspects arrested on suspicion of plotting a terrorist killing and participation in the activities of a terrorist group all live in Antwerp, per the federal prosecutors. They were with years of birth in the early 2000s.
On Thursday evening, one of the individuals was freed, while two others were under interrogation and scheduled to face a judge on the next day.
The prosecution revealed that the individuals were taken into custody after a judge ordered inspections of their homes in the city by officials assisted by explosive sniffer dogs.
It was during these investigations that they located a item which closely resembled a homemade bomb, lead prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a press conference on Thursday.
Searches also uncovered a container of metal spheres and a additive manufacturing device, with evidence suggesting drone-based payload delivery, she noted.
The prosecutor said that there had been 80 terrorism investigations launched in the country in the current year - more than the full amount of instances in last year.
Earlier this year, five people were sentenced for a scheme last year to strike the prime minister while he was acting as the mayor of Antwerp.
