🔗 Share this article Alleged Plot to Strike Belgian Premier Foiled Belgium's law enforcement have taken into custody three suspects suspected of plotting an assault on the nation's PM, Bart de Wever. Legal authorities characterized the alleged plot as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the prime minister and other politicians. During raids conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, close to the premier's personal dwelling, authorities found a suspected homemade bomb and indications that the accused were intending to use a unmanned aerial vehicle. While the intended targets of the strike were not publicly identified by the legal authorities, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot stated that Belgium's leader was among them. "Information of a planned strike aimed at Prime Minister Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," the deputy prime minister wrote in a post on social media on the investigation day. "This underscores that we are dealing with a genuine terrorist threat and that we have to keep watchful," he continued. The three individuals detained on allegations of terrorism-related attempted murder and participation in the operations of a terrorist group all reside in the city of Antwerp, per the federal prosecutors. They were with years of birth in the early 2000s. On late Thursday, one suspect was let go, while the other suspects were undergoing questioning and likely to be presented before a court on the following day. Legal authorities revealed that the accused were detained after a magistrate ordered raids of their residences in the city by law enforcement supported by bomb detection canines. In the course of these investigations that they discovered a object which closely resembled a homemade bomb, lead prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a media briefing on Thursday. Investigations also found a "bag of steel balls" and a additive manufacturing device, with evidence suggesting drone-based payload delivery, she noted. Fransen disclosed that there had been 80 extremist probes launched in the country so far this year - exceeding the overall count of investigations in last year. Earlier this year, five suspects were sentenced for a scheme last year to attack De Wever while he was serving as Antwerp's mayor.