Alleged Plan to Strike Belgian PM Thwarted
Belgian police have detained three individuals suspected of conspiring to carry out an strike on the government's PM, Bart de Wever.
Federal prosecutors characterized the alleged plan as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the prime minister and fellow politicians.
During raids conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, close to the PM's home, officials found a potential improvised explosive device and proof that the individuals were preparing to use a UAV.
While the intended targets of the assault were not officially named by the prosecutor's office, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot stated that de Wever was among them.
"Reports of a planned strike targeting Premier Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," the official declared in a post on online platforms on the day of the arrests.
"This underscores that we are confronting a very real terrorism risk and that we have to keep watchful," he added.
The three suspects taken into custody on suspicion of plotting a terrorist killing and participation in the operations of a extremist organization all reside in the city of Antwerp, per the prosecutor's office. They were born in three different years between 2001 and 2007.
On late Thursday, one of the individuals was released, while the remaining two were undergoing questioning and expected to be presented before a court on the following day.
The prosecution stated that the individuals were taken into custody after a magistrate directed inspections of their homes in the city by law enforcement backed by bomb detection canines.
Throughout these investigations that they discovered a object which closely resembled a homemade bomb, lead prosecutor Ann Fransen announced at a press conference on that day.
Investigations also found a "bag of steel balls" and a additive manufacturing device, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she noted.
The official stated that there had been 80 extremist probes opened in the country in the current year - surpassing the total number of investigations in the previous year.
Earlier this year, five individuals were sentenced for a previous year's plan to attack De Wever while he was serving as the mayor of Antwerp.
