🔗 Share this article

Belgium's police have arrested three suspects allegedly involved in conspiring to carry out an assault on the country's premier, Bart de Wever.

Federal prosecutors labeled the suspected scheme as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the prime minister and fellow elected representatives.

During searches conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, close to the premier's personal dwelling, authorities discovered a suspected improvised explosive device and proof that the individuals were planning to use a drone.

While the intended targets of the attack were not disclosed by name by the prosecutor's office, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot revealed that Belgium's leader was one of them.

"The news of a premeditated strike aimed at Prime Minister Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," the deputy prime minister stated in a update on social media on the day of the arrests.

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

The three individuals detained on suspicion of plotting a terrorist killing and engagement in the activities of a extremist organization all live in the Antwerp region, per the prosecutor's office. They were born in three different years between 2001 and 2007.

On the evening of the arrests, one of the individuals was released, while two others were undergoing questioning and likely to appear in court on Friday.

The prosecution said that the individuals were taken into custody after a magistrate directed inspections of their dwellings in the city by officials assisted by explosives-trained dogs.

Throughout these raids that they found a object which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", federal prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a media briefing on that day.

Raids also found a collection of ball bearings and a three-dimensional printer, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she noted.

The prosecutor said that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases launched in the nation this year - surpassing the overall count of instances in last year.

During the spring, five people were sentenced for a 2023 plot to attack De Wever while he was holding the position of the city's chief executive.