Alleged Plot to Attack Belgian Premier Prevented
Belgian police have arrested three people allegedly involved in conspiring to carry out an attack on the nation's PM, Bart de Wever.
Federal prosecutors labeled the alleged plan as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the prime minister and other elected representatives.
During investigations conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, near the prime minister's home, officials discovered a potential IED and indications that the individuals were planning to use a unmanned aerial vehicle.
While the prospective targets of the attack were not disclosed by name by the legal authorities, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot revealed that the prime minister was among them.
"Information of a premeditated assault aimed at PM Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," Prevot stated in a message on social media on the day of the arrests.
"This underscores that we are confronting a genuine terrorism risk and that we have to remain vigilant," he added.
The three people taken into custody on allegations of attempted terrorist murder and involvement in the operations of a jihadist network all live in the Antwerp region, per the legal authorities. They were born in three different years between 2001 and 2007.
By the evening of the arrests, one of the individuals was let go, while the remaining two were still being questioned and scheduled to be presented before a court on the following day.
The prosecution revealed that the suspects were taken into custody after a court official authorized raids of their homes in the location by officials assisted by explosive sniffer dogs.
Throughout these raids that they located a device which appeared to be an IED, lead prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a press conference on that day.
Investigations also found a "bag of steel balls" and a three-dimensional printer, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she continued.
Fransen said that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases opened in Belgium this year - more than the full amount of instances in 2024.
Earlier this year, five suspects were convicted for a scheme last year to strike Belgium's leader while he was holding the position of Antwerp's mayor.
