Alleged Plot to Target Belgian Prime Minister Prevented
Belgian law enforcement have detained three people accused of conspiring to carry out an assault on the country's premier, Bart de Wever.
Legal authorities characterized the suspected scheme as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the prime minister and additional elected representatives.
During raids conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, near the premier's private residence, authorities uncovered a potential homemade bomb and evidence that the suspects were intending to employ a UAV.
While the prospective targets of the assault were not publicly identified by the federal prosecutors, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot revealed that de Wever was included in the targets.
"The news of a premeditated attack directed toward PM Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," Prevot declared in a update on X on the investigation day.
"It emphasizes that we are confronting a serious terrorism risk and that we have to keep watchful," he added.
The three suspects detained on allegations of terrorism-related attempted murder and involvement in the activities of a extremist organization all live in the city of Antwerp, according to the prosecutor's office. They were had birth years in the early 2000s.
On the evening of the arrests, one of the individuals was freed, while the remaining two were undergoing questioning and expected to face a judge on the next day.
Federal prosecutors revealed that the accused were taken into custody after a court official authorized searches of their dwellings in the urban area by officials supported by explosive sniffer dogs.
In the course of these searches that they discovered a object which appeared to be an IED, legal representative Ann Fransen said at a media briefing on that day.
Searches also found a container of metal spheres and a additive manufacturing device, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she noted.
The prosecutor disclosed that there had been 80 extremist probes initiated in the country this year - surpassing the full amount of instances in 2024.
In April, five people were found guilty for a 2023 plot to attack the prime minister while he was holding the position of the city's chief executive.
