Alleged Plan to Strike Belgian Prime Minister Thwarted
Belgian police have taken into custody three suspects accused of conspiring to carry out an attack on the nation's PM, Bart de Wever.
Federal prosecutors described the alleged scheme as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the prime minister and additional elected representatives.
During searches conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, in proximity to the premier's personal dwelling, authorities discovered a potential homemade bomb and indications that the suspects were intending to deploy a UAV.
While the planned victims of the strike were not disclosed by name by the federal prosecutors, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot stated that the prime minister was among them.
"Information of a intended strike directed toward Prime Minister Bart de Wever is extremely shocking," the deputy prime minister declared in a update on X on the investigation day.
"This underscores that we are dealing with a genuine extremist danger and that we have to remain vigilant," he added.
The three individuals detained on suspicion of terrorism-related attempted murder and engagement in the operations of a jihadist network 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 late Thursday, one of the individuals was freed, while two others were under interrogation and scheduled to appear in court on the next day.
Federal prosecutors stated that the suspects were arrested after a judge directed inspections of their homes in the urban area by officials backed by explosive sniffer dogs.
It was during these raids that they found a item which closely resembled a homemade bomb, legal representative Ann Fransen said 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 continued.
The official disclosed that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases opened in Belgium in the current year - more than the total number of cases in 2024.
Earlier this year, five individuals were found guilty for a previous year's plan to strike the prime minister while he was acting as the city's chief executive.
