Alleged Scheme to Attack Belgian Prime Minister Prevented
Belgian authorities have taken into custody three individuals allegedly involved in conspiring to carry out an strike on the government's premier, Bart de Wever.
Federal prosecutors characterized the alleged scheme as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the premier and fellow government officials.
During raids conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, close to the prime minister's private residence, authorities discovered a potential homemade bomb and indications that the accused were intending to employ a drone.
While the planned victims of the attack were not publicly identified by the federal prosecutors, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot stated that de Wever was one of them.
"The news of a planned assault aimed at Prime Minister Bart de Wever is extremely shocking," Prevot stated in a update on social media on Thursday.
"This underscores that we are confronting a very real terrorist threat and that we have to stay alert," he concluded.
The three people detained on charges of terrorism-related attempted murder and engagement in the activities of a extremist organization all are based in the Antwerp region, per the legal authorities. They were with years of birth in 2001, 2002 and 2007.
By late Thursday, one suspect was freed, while the remaining two were under interrogation and scheduled to face a judge on the next day.
Federal prosecutors stated that the accused were arrested after a judge ordered searches of their homes in the urban area by officials backed by bomb detection canines.
It was during these searches that they discovered a device which closely resembled a homemade bomb, lead prosecutor Ann Fransen announced at a media briefing on that day.
Raids also found a "bag of steel balls" and a 3D printer, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she added.
The prosecutor disclosed that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases launched in Belgium this year - more than the full amount of instances in last year.
During the spring, five individuals were convicted for a previous year's plan to attack Belgium's leader while he was acting as the mayor of Antwerp.