Suspected Plot to Attack Belgian Premier Foiled
Belgian police have taken into custody three suspects suspected of planning an attack on the country's premier, Bart de Wever.
Federal prosecutors characterized the suspected plan as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the premier and other elected representatives.
During searches conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, in proximity to the prime minister's personal dwelling, officials found a alleged improvised explosive device and indications that the suspects were intending to employ a unmanned aerial vehicle.
While the intended targets of the strike were not disclosed by name by the prosecutor's office, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot revealed that the prime minister was one of them.
"Reports of a intended strike aimed at Prime Minister Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," Prevot stated in a message on online platforms on the day of the arrests.
"This underscores that we are facing a very real extremist danger and that we have to stay alert," he continued.
The three suspects arrested on suspicion of terrorism-related attempted murder and participation in the functions of a extremist organization all are based in Antwerp, as stated by the federal prosecutors. They were with years of birth in three different years between 2001 and 2007.
On late Thursday, one person was let go, while the remaining two were still being questioned and likely to appear in court on Friday.
Legal authorities stated that the individuals were arrested after a court official authorized searches of their dwellings in the urban area by police officers supported by bomb detection canines.
In the course of these investigations that they discovered a device which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", federal prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a press conference on Thursday.
Investigations also found a container of metal spheres and a additive manufacturing device, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she noted.
The official stated that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases opened in Belgium in the current year - more than the overall count of instances in last year.
In April, five people were found guilty for a previous year's plan to strike De Wever while he was holding the position of the mayor of Antwerp.
