Alleged Plan to Attack Belgian Prime Minister Prevented
Belgium's police have detained three individuals allegedly involved in plotting an strike on the government's prime minister, Bart de Wever.
Federal prosecutors labeled the reported plan as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the premier and fellow government officials.
During investigations conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, in proximity to the premier's personal dwelling, investigators uncovered a suspected improvised explosive device and evidence that the suspects were planning to deploy a drone.
While the planned victims of the assault were not disclosed by name by the legal authorities, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot confirmed that the prime minister was included in the targets.
"The news of a premeditated attack aimed at Premier Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," Prevot wrote in a post on social media on Thursday.
"This underscores that we are confronting a genuine extremist danger and that we have to stay alert," he concluded.
The three suspects taken into custody on suspicion of plotting a terrorist killing and engagement in the functions of a extremist organization all are based in the Antwerp region, per the federal prosecutors. They were had birth years in three different years between 2001 and 2007.
As of Thursday evening, one of the individuals was let go, while the remaining two were undergoing questioning and scheduled to face a judge on the next day.
Federal prosecutors revealed that the individuals were arrested after a court official ordered searches of their dwellings in the urban area by police officers backed by explosive sniffer dogs.
In the course of these raids that they found a device which appeared to be an IED, federal prosecutor Ann Fransen said at a media briefing on Thursday.
Raids also revealed a collection of ball bearings and a additive manufacturing device, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she added.
The official stated that there had been 80 extremist probes initiated in Belgium this year - surpassing the full amount of investigations in 2024.
Earlier this year, five individuals were convicted for a 2023 plot to attack the prime minister while he was acting as Antwerp's mayor.
