Alleged Plot to Attack Belgian PM Prevented
Belgian authorities have taken into custody three individuals accused of plotting an strike on the nation's prime minister, Bart de Wever.
Prosecutors described the suspected scheme as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the prime minister and additional politicians.
During searches conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, in proximity to the premier's private residence, investigators discovered a alleged homemade bomb and indications that the individuals were preparing to deploy a drone.
While the prospective targets of the attack were not publicly identified by the prosecutor's office, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot confirmed that the prime minister was one of them.
"Information of a intended assault aimed at Premier Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the official stated in a message on online platforms on the investigation day.
"This underscores that we are confronting a genuine terrorism risk and that we have to keep watchful," he concluded.
The three suspects taken into custody on allegations of plotting a terrorist killing and engagement in the operations of a jihadist network all live in the city of Antwerp, as stated by the federal prosecutors. They were had birth years in the early 2000s.
On Thursday evening, one suspect was freed, while the remaining two were still being questioned and expected to face a judge on Friday.
The prosecution said that the suspects were taken into custody after a judge ordered searches of their dwellings in the location by police officers supported by bomb detection canines.
In the course of these investigations that they located a object which appeared to be an IED, federal prosecutor Ann Fransen said at a press conference on Thursday.
Investigations also found a "bag of steel balls" and a additive manufacturing device, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she continued.
The official disclosed that there had been 80 terrorism investigations opened in Belgium so far this year - more than the full amount of instances in the previous year.
Earlier this year, five individuals were convicted for a scheme last year to attack Belgium's leader while he was acting as Antwerp's mayor.
