Reported Scheme to Attack Belgian Prime Minister Thwarted
Belgian law enforcement have arrested three individuals allegedly involved in conspiring to carry out an assault on the country's PM, Bart de Wever.
Legal authorities described the reported plot as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the PM and fellow elected representatives.
During searches conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, near the PM's home, investigators discovered a alleged improvised explosive device and indications that the suspects were preparing to use a unmanned aerial vehicle.
While the intended targets of the assault were not publicly identified by the legal authorities, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot confirmed that Belgium's leader was one of them.
"Information of a premeditated strike aimed at Prime Minister Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," the official declared in a post on online platforms on the day of the arrests.
"It highlights that we are confronting a genuine terrorism risk and that we have to keep watchful," he concluded.
The three individuals arrested on suspicion of terrorism-related attempted murder and involvement in the functions of a terrorist group all are based in the Antwerp region, as stated by the prosecutor's office. They were had birth years in three different years between 2001 and 2007.
On the evening of the arrests, one suspect was freed, while the other suspects were under interrogation and scheduled to face a judge on the following day.
The prosecution stated that the accused were detained after a magistrate ordered searches of their dwellings in the location by police officers assisted by explosive sniffer dogs.
It was during these raids that they discovered a item which appeared to be an IED, federal prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a news conference on that day.
Raids also revealed a "bag of steel balls" and a additive manufacturing device, with evidence suggesting drone-based payload delivery, she noted.
The official said that there had been 80 extremist probes launched in the nation in the current year - surpassing the overall count of instances in last year.
Earlier this year, five suspects were found guilty for a 2023 plot to strike Belgium's leader while he was holding the position of Antwerp's mayor.