Alleged Plan to Strike Belgian PM Foiled

Belgium's law enforcement have taken into custody three suspects allegedly involved in conspiring to carry out an attack on the country's prime minister, Bart de Wever.

Prosecutors labeled the reported plan as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the prime minister and additional elected representatives.

During raids conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, in proximity to the prime minister's private residence, authorities discovered a potential IED and evidence that the accused were planning to deploy a drone.

While the planned victims of the attack were not disclosed by name by the federal prosecutors, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot revealed that de Wever was included in the targets.

"Reports of a planned attack targeting Premier Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the deputy prime minister stated in a update on X on the investigation day.

"This underscores that we are facing a genuine terrorist threat and that we have to keep watchful," he concluded.

The three people arrested on allegations of terrorism-related attempted murder and participation in the functions of a jihadist network all are based in Antwerp, as stated by the federal prosecutors. They were born in 2001, 2002 and 2007.

By late Thursday, one suspect was released, while the remaining two were still being questioned and expected to face a judge on the following day.

Legal authorities stated that the individuals were arrested after a magistrate directed raids of their dwellings in the city by officials supported by explosives-trained dogs.

Throughout these raids that they discovered a object which closely resembled a homemade bomb, federal prosecutor Ann Fransen announced at a press conference on Thursday.

Searches also revealed a container of metal spheres and a three-dimensional printer, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she added.

Fransen disclosed that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases opened in the nation in the current year - surpassing the full amount of instances in 2024.

In April, five people were sentenced for a previous year's plan to target De Wever while he was acting as Antwerp's mayor.