Belgium: Eight arrested in ‘terror attack’ probe following house raids

The police have arrested eight people following investigations into a potential jihadist plot to commit “terrorist attacks” in Belgium, said the country’s officials, on Tuesday (March 28) as per AFP. In a statement, the federal prosecutor’s office said that the raids were conducted late Monday on homes in the capital city of Brussels, the port city of Antwerp and the border town of Eupen.

It added that the operation was conducted in connection with two inquiries one of which was led by the federal police in Brussels and the other by an investigating magistrate in Antwerp. “There are links between the two files, but further research will have to show to what extent the two groups were intertwined,” said the statement about the raids.

A judicial source told AFP that those arrested were “very young radicalised people” and possibly a part of some jihadist movement. According to the statement, at least five of those detained were suspected of planning to “commit a terrorist attack in Belgium”. However, in both cases, those accused have not been charged yet.

Some eight people were detained, following Monday’s raid, where the Antwerp inquiry led to five arrests including the one in Eupen, near the German border, while the Brussels probe led to three arrests. The state broadcaster RTBF had previously reported that the investigations in Antwerp and Brussels were initially focused on “two young adults suspected of violent radicalism.”

Notably, these arrests mark the first such terror inquiry to be made public in Brussels since last year, reported AFP. The European nation witnessed a wave of deadly jihadist attacks between 2016 and 2018. Meanwhile, Belgium’s biggest criminal trial, where nine people, accused of taking part in the 2016 suicide bombings is underway in Brussels.

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