Alleged Plot to Target Belgian Premier Thwarted
Belgian police have detained three individuals accused of conspiring to carry out an assault on the nation's prime minister, Bart de Wever.
Legal authorities characterized the reported scheme as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the prime minister and other elected representatives.
During raids conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, close to the premier's private residence, investigators discovered a alleged improvised explosive device and proof that the accused were intending to use a unmanned aerial vehicle.
While the planned victims of the attack were not disclosed by name by the prosecutor's office, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot confirmed that the prime minister was included in the targets.
"Reports of a planned strike directed toward Prime Minister Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the official stated in a post on social media on Thursday.
"It highlights that we are confronting a serious extremist danger and that we have to keep watchful," he added.
The three people detained on allegations of plotting a terrorist killing and involvement in the operations of a terrorist group all reside in Antwerp, per the prosecutor's office. They were with years of birth in 2001, 2002 and 2007.
On Thursday evening, one of the individuals was freed, while the other suspects were undergoing questioning and likely to appear in court on Friday.
Federal prosecutors revealed that the accused were taken into custody after a judge ordered raids of their homes in the city by officials assisted by explosives-trained dogs.
In the course of these investigations that they discovered a item which closely resembled a homemade bomb, legal representative Ann Fransen announced at a news conference on that day.
Raids also found a collection of ball bearings and a three-dimensional printer, with evidence suggesting drone-based payload delivery, she continued.
Fransen disclosed that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases opened in Belgium in the current year - surpassing the full amount of investigations in 2024.
In April, five people were convicted for a scheme last year to strike the prime minister while he was holding the position of Antwerp's mayor.
