Alleged Scheme to Attack Belgian Premier Foiled
Belgium's police have detained three suspects suspected of planning an strike on the nation's premier, Bart de Wever.
Prosecutors labeled the suspected scheme as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the prime minister and other politicians.
During searches conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, near the premier's private residence, officials uncovered a suspected homemade bomb and indications that the individuals were preparing to use a unmanned aerial vehicle.
While the intended targets of the attack were not officially named by the federal prosecutors, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot revealed that de Wever was among them.
"Reports of a intended strike aimed at Premier Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the deputy prime minister wrote in a post on social media on Thursday.
"This underscores that we are facing a very real extremist danger and that we have to keep watchful," he concluded.
The three individuals taken into custody on suspicion of plotting a terrorist killing and engagement in the activities of a terrorist group all reside in the city of Antwerp, as stated by the prosecutor's office. They were had birth years in the early 2000s.
By Thursday evening, one suspect was freed, while two others were undergoing questioning and scheduled to face a judge on the next day.
Legal authorities revealed that the individuals were taken into custody after a court official ordered inspections of their residences in the urban area by law enforcement backed by bomb detection canines.
Throughout these searches that they discovered a item which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", legal representative Ann Fransen announced at a press conference on that day.
Searches also found a container of metal spheres and a three-dimensional printer, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she noted.
Fransen disclosed that there had been 80 extremist probes opened in Belgium this year - more than the full amount of cases in last year.
During the spring, five individuals were sentenced for a 2023 plot to target the prime minister while he was serving as Antwerp's mayor.