Tuesday, March 28, 2023 – 09:50
Belgium’s federal prosecutor announced on Tuesday the arrest of eight people on Monday night as part of two investigations on suspicion of plotting a “terrorist attack.”
A court source told Agence France-Presse that the detainees are “young people who have embarked on the path of extremism” and joined the “jihadist movement.”
Possible targets have not yet been determined. According to prosecutors, the investigation is focused on the attack plan in both files, which are linked.
Five raids took place in Molenbeek in the Brussels region and in the east of the country, and in the Dutch-speaking regions in the north, namely in Meerskem, Burgout and Dorne in Antwerp (Anwerp), in the first case in which the investigation is being conducted in this latter city; And they led to the arrest of five people, while two detainees are suspected of “preparing to commit a terrorist attack in Belgium.”
In the context of the second case being investigated in Brussels, three people were arrested in Molenbeek and Czerbeek (Brussels) and in Zaventem near the capital. There is a suspicion that the detainees were preparing to commit a terrorist attack on Belgian soil.
The federal prosecutor’s office stressed that “there are links between the two files, but a deeper investigation will reveal the degree of overlap between the two cases.”
Belgium has been attacked for which the Islamic State claimed responsibility seven years ago. Ten people are currently facing criminal court.
These attacks on 22 March 2016 left 32 people dead and more than 340 injured.
