Alleged Plan to Attack Belgian Premier Foiled
Belgium's police have detained three suspects suspected of conspiring to carry out an strike on the country's prime minister, Bart de Wever.
Legal authorities characterized the alleged plan as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the prime minister and other elected representatives.
During searches conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, in proximity to the PM's private residence, officials discovered a potential homemade bomb and indications that the suspects were preparing to employ a UAV.
While the planned victims of the strike were not disclosed by name by the legal authorities, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot revealed that the prime minister was among them.
"Reports of a planned assault aimed at Premier Bart de Wever is extremely shocking," the official declared in a post on online platforms on Thursday.
"It highlights that we are facing a very real terrorist threat and that we have to keep watchful," he continued.
The three individuals detained on suspicion of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the functions of a extremist organization all are based in the city of Antwerp, according to the prosecutor's office. They were born in three different years between 2001 and 2007.
As of the evening of the arrests, one suspect was released, while the remaining two were under interrogation and scheduled to be presented before a court on the next day.
The prosecution stated that the accused were arrested after a magistrate ordered inspections of their homes in the city by police officers assisted by bomb detection canines.
It was during these investigations that they found a item which closely resembled a homemade bomb, legal representative Ann Fransen stated at a press conference on Thursday.
Raids also revealed a container of metal spheres and a three-dimensional printer, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she added.
Fransen said that there had been 80 extremist probes initiated in Belgium this year - more than the overall count of cases in last year.
Earlier this year, five people were convicted for a previous year's plan to attack Belgium's leader while he was acting as Antwerp's mayor.
