Reported Plot to Target Belgian Prime Minister Foiled
Belgian police have taken into custody three people allegedly involved in conspiring to carry out an assault on the government's PM, Bart de Wever.
Prosecutors characterized the alleged plot as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the premier and fellow government officials.
During searches conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, near the prime minister's home, investigators uncovered a potential IED and indications that the individuals were preparing to use a unmanned aerial vehicle.
While the intended targets of the assault were not disclosed by name by the prosecutor's office, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot stated that the prime minister was one of them.
"The news of a premeditated assault aimed at Premier Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the deputy prime minister declared in a update on social media on the investigation day.
"This underscores that we are confronting a serious extremist danger and that we have to keep watchful," he concluded.
The three suspects detained on suspicion of terrorism-related attempted murder and participation in the operations of a terrorist group all reside in the city of Antwerp, per the federal prosecutors. They were had birth years in the early 2000s.
On late Thursday, one suspect was freed, while two others 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 authorized raids of their residences in the urban area by law enforcement backed by explosive sniffer dogs.
It was during these investigations that they located a device which closely resembled a homemade bomb, lead prosecutor Ann Fransen said at a media briefing on Thursday.
Investigations also found a container of metal spheres and a three-dimensional printer, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she noted.
Fransen stated that there had been 80 extremist probes launched in Belgium in the current year - more than the full amount of cases in the previous year.
During the spring, five people were found guilty for a previous year's plan to strike the prime minister while he was serving as Antwerp's mayor.
