🔗 Share this article Alleged Scheme to Target Belgian PM Foiled Belgian police have arrested three suspects accused of conspiring to carry out an strike on the nation's PM, Bart de Wever. Federal prosecutors labeled the suspected scheme as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the premier and other elected representatives. During investigations conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, in proximity to the PM's home, officials discovered a potential IED and indications that the accused were preparing to deploy a unmanned aerial vehicle. While the intended targets of the strike were not officially named by the prosecutor's office, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot revealed that Belgium's leader was one of them. "Information of a planned strike aimed at Premier Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," Prevot declared in a post on X on the investigation day. "It emphasizes that we are confronting a very real terrorism risk and that we have to keep watchful," he concluded. The three suspects arrested on charges of plotting a terrorist killing and involvement in the functions of a jihadist network all live in the Antwerp region, according to the prosecutor's office. They were born in the early 2000s. On Thursday evening, one person was freed, while two others were under interrogation and likely to appear in court on the following day. Federal prosecutors revealed that the suspects were taken into custody after a court official directed raids of their dwellings in the urban area by law enforcement supported by explosive sniffer dogs. It was during these searches that they located a item which closely resembled a homemade bomb, legal representative Ann Fransen stated at a press conference on the day of the events. Searches also revealed a collection of ball bearings and a 3D printer, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she noted. The official said that there had been 80 terrorism investigations launched in the country in the current year - surpassing the full amount of investigations in last year. Earlier this year, five people were convicted for a previous year's plan to target Belgium's leader while he was holding the position of the mayor of Antwerp.