🔗 Share this article Reported Scheme to Target Belgian Prime Minister Thwarted Belgian police have taken into custody three suspects accused of planning an strike on the nation's prime minister, Bart de Wever. Legal authorities characterized the reported scheme as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the PM and other government officials. During searches conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, near the prime minister's home, authorities discovered a alleged homemade bomb and indications that the individuals were planning to deploy a drone. While the intended targets of the strike were not disclosed by name by the prosecutor's office, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot confirmed that Belgium's leader was among them. "Information of a premeditated attack aimed at Prime Minister Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the deputy prime minister declared in a post on X on the day of the arrests. "This underscores that we are confronting a genuine terrorism risk and that we have to remain vigilant," he concluded. The three people taken into custody on allegations of terrorism-related attempted murder and involvement in the operations of a jihadist network all live in Antwerp, as stated by the legal authorities. They were with years of birth in 2001, 2002 and 2007. By Thursday evening, one of the individuals was let go, while two others were undergoing questioning and expected to be presented before a court on the next day. The prosecution revealed that the suspects were arrested after a court official authorized raids of their homes in the location by law enforcement supported by explosives-trained dogs. Throughout these searches that they found a item which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", legal representative Ann Fransen announced at a press conference on that day. Searches also uncovered a collection of ball bearings and a three-dimensional printer, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she noted. The prosecutor disclosed that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases initiated in Belgium so far this year - more than the total number of instances in last year. During the spring, five suspects were sentenced for a scheme last year to attack the prime minister while he was serving as the city's chief executive.