Reported Plot to Strike Belgian Prime Minister Prevented
Belgian law enforcement have detained three people suspected of plotting an attack on the country's PM, Bart de Wever.
Legal authorities characterized the suspected plan as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the prime minister and fellow politicians.
During searches conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, close to the premier's private residence, investigators found a potential IED and indications that the individuals were intending to employ a unmanned aerial vehicle.
While the planned victims of the attack were not disclosed by name by the federal prosecutors, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot confirmed that Belgium's leader was included in the targets.
"Reports of a planned assault directed toward Premier Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," Prevot stated in a update on X on Thursday.
"It emphasizes that we are facing a genuine terrorism risk and that we have to keep watchful," he continued.
The three suspects detained on suspicion of plotting a terrorist killing and participation in the operations of a terrorist group all live in Antwerp, according to the federal prosecutors. They were born in three different years between 2001 and 2007.
On Thursday evening, one of the individuals was let go, while the other suspects were undergoing questioning and expected to face a judge on the following day.
Legal authorities stated that the individuals were detained after a court official directed inspections of their homes in the city by officials assisted by explosive sniffer dogs.
Throughout these investigations that they discovered a device which appeared to be an IED, legal representative Ann Fransen announced at a news conference on Thursday.
Investigations also uncovered a "bag of steel balls" and a three-dimensional printer, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she noted.
The prosecutor stated that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases opened in the country in the current year - more than the full amount of cases in last year.
In April, five people were convicted for a previous year's plan to target Belgium's leader while he was holding the position of the city's chief executive.
