Alleged Scheme to Target Belgian PM Foiled

Belgian police have taken into custody three suspects accused of conspiring to carry out an attack on the country's PM, Bart de Wever.

Prosecutors characterized the suspected plot as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the prime minister and other politicians.

During raids conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, near the premier's personal dwelling, authorities found a potential homemade bomb and indications that the individuals were intending to use a drone.

While the planned victims of the attack were not disclosed by name by the legal authorities, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot revealed that de Wever was among them.

"Information of a intended attack targeting Prime Minister Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the deputy prime minister stated in a post on social media on the day of the arrests.

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

The three individuals arrested on allegations of attempted terrorist murder and involvement in the activities of a terrorist group all reside in the Antwerp region, as stated by the prosecutor's office. They were with years of birth in 2001, 2002 and 2007.

By the evening of the arrests, one person was freed, while the remaining two were under interrogation and scheduled to be presented before a court on the next day.

Federal prosecutors revealed that the accused were detained after a court official authorized raids of their dwellings in the city by law enforcement assisted by explosives-trained dogs.

In the course of these raids that they found a item which appeared to be an IED, lead prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a press conference on the day of the events.

Searches also uncovered a collection of ball bearings and a additive manufacturing device, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she continued.

Fransen disclosed that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases initiated in the country in the current year - exceeding the overall count of instances in the previous year.

During the spring, five individuals were sentenced for a 2023 plot to target De Wever while he was acting as the mayor of Antwerp.