Reported Scheme to Strike Belgian Premier Thwarted
Belgium's law enforcement have detained three people allegedly involved in plotting an assault on the government's premier, Bart de Wever.
Prosecutors labeled the reported scheme as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the premier and other politicians.
During investigations conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, close to the PM's home, authorities discovered a potential improvised explosive device and indications that the accused were intending to deploy a drone.
While the prospective targets of the attack were not publicly identified by the legal authorities, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot revealed that the prime minister was one of them.
"Reports of a planned strike aimed at Prime Minister Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," the deputy prime minister stated in a message on X on Thursday.
"It highlights that we are dealing with a serious terrorist threat and that we have to stay alert," he continued.
The three people taken into custody on suspicion of terrorism-related attempted murder and participation in the operations of a terrorist group all are based in the Antwerp region, as stated by the federal prosecutors. They were with years of birth in the early 2000s.
By Thursday evening, one person was freed, while the other suspects were undergoing questioning and scheduled to face a judge on the following day.
The prosecution stated that the suspects were detained after a magistrate directed raids of their dwellings in the city by officials assisted by explosive sniffer dogs.
Throughout these investigations that they found a object which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", legal representative Ann Fransen said at a news conference on Thursday.
Investigations also found a container of metal spheres and a three-dimensional printer, with evidence suggesting drone-based payload delivery, she added.
Fransen said that there had been 80 extremist probes launched in the country in the current year - exceeding the total number of instances in the previous year.
During the spring, five suspects were sentenced for a previous year's plan to attack De Wever while he was holding the position of Antwerp's mayor.
