Alleged Plot to Attack Belgian Prime Minister Prevented
Belgium's police have taken into custody three suspects allegedly involved in plotting an assault on the country's premier, Bart de Wever.
Prosecutors described the suspected plot as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the premier and additional elected representatives.
During searches conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, near the premier's private residence, investigators discovered a suspected IED and evidence that the individuals were preparing to employ a drone.
While the prospective targets of the attack were not publicly identified by the prosecutor's office, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot stated that Belgium's leader was one of them.
"Information of a premeditated assault directed toward Premier Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," the official wrote in a update on online platforms on Thursday.
"This underscores that we are facing a genuine terrorism risk and that we have to remain vigilant," he concluded.
The three people arrested on allegations of terrorism-related attempted murder and involvement in the operations of a terrorist group all reside in the Antwerp region, per the prosecutor's office. They were with years of birth in three different years between 2001 and 2007.
On the evening of the arrests, one of the individuals was freed, while the remaining two were undergoing questioning and likely to face a judge on the next day.
The prosecution said that the individuals were detained after a judge ordered searches of their dwellings in the urban area by officials backed by bomb detection canines.
In the course of these raids that they discovered a device which closely resembled a homemade bomb, federal prosecutor Ann Fransen said at a press conference on that day.
Searches also uncovered a "bag of steel balls" and a three-dimensional printer, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she added.
The prosecutor stated that there had been 80 extremist probes initiated in the country this year - surpassing the overall count of cases in the previous year.
Earlier this year, five individuals were found guilty for a scheme last year to attack De Wever while he was serving as the city's chief executive.
