Alleged Plan to Target Belgian PM Prevented
Belgian law enforcement have taken into custody three individuals accused of conspiring to carry out an assault on the country's premier, Bart de Wever.
Prosecutors characterized the reported scheme as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the PM and additional politicians.
During investigations conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, near the premier's personal dwelling, authorities found a alleged IED and proof that the suspects were intending to use a drone.
While the intended targets of the attack were not officially named by the federal prosecutors, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot confirmed that de Wever was among them.
"Information of a planned assault aimed at Premier Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the deputy prime minister declared in a update on online platforms on Thursday.
"It highlights that we are confronting a very real extremist danger and that we have to keep watchful," he concluded.
The three individuals detained on allegations of plotting a terrorist killing and engagement in the operations of a jihadist network all reside in the Antwerp region, as stated by the federal prosecutors. They were had birth years in 2001, 2002 and 2007.
By Thursday evening, one person was freed, while two others were undergoing questioning and scheduled to be presented before a court on Friday.
The prosecution revealed that the suspects were detained after a court official authorized inspections of their homes in the city by police officers assisted by explosives-trained dogs.
In the course of these investigations that they found a device which appeared to be an IED, legal representative Ann Fransen announced at a media briefing on Thursday.
Searches also found a collection of ball bearings and a additive manufacturing device, with evidence suggesting drone-based payload delivery, she continued.
The prosecutor stated that there had been 80 terrorism investigations opened in the country this year - more than the overall count of investigations in the previous year.
Earlier this year, five people were found guilty for a 2023 plot to attack De Wever while he was serving as the city's chief executive.
