Suspected Plot to Strike Belgian Prime Minister Foiled
Belgium's law enforcement have detained three suspects suspected of planning an assault on the nation's premier, Bart de Wever.
Federal prosecutors characterized the alleged plan as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the premier and fellow politicians.
During searches conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, close to the PM's personal dwelling, officials found a potential improvised explosive device and proof that the suspects were intending to employ a drone.
While the intended targets of the strike were not disclosed by name by the legal authorities, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot confirmed that the prime minister was among them.
"Reports of a intended attack directed toward Premier Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," the deputy prime minister wrote in a update on social media on Thursday.
"It highlights that we are facing a genuine terrorist threat and that we have to stay alert," he continued.
The three individuals arrested on suspicion of plotting a terrorist killing and participation in the functions of a extremist organization all live in the city of Antwerp, per the legal authorities. They were with years of birth in 2001, 2002 and 2007.
By late Thursday, one person was freed, while two others were under interrogation and expected to appear in court on the next day.
The prosecution said that the individuals were taken into custody after a court official directed searches of their homes in the location by police officers backed by bomb detection canines.
It was during these raids that they found a object which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", federal prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a press conference on Thursday.
Investigations also found a "bag of steel balls" and a three-dimensional printer, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she added.
The prosecutor said that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases launched in Belgium in the current year - more than the overall count of cases in 2024.
During the spring, five suspects were convicted for a 2023 plot to attack the prime minister while he was acting as the mayor of Antwerp.
