Belgium arrests eight in ‘terror attack’ probe following house raids

Issued on: 28/03/2023 – 11:27

Raids were conducted late Monday on homes in the capital Brussels, the port city of Antwerp and the border town of Eupen, the statement said.

A judicial source told AFP those arrested “were very young radicalised people” suspected of belonging to a jihadist movement.

The prosecutor’s statement cited two inquiries, one led by federal police in Brussels and the other by an investigating magistrate in Antwerp.

Both led to house raids on Monday, and the statement said: “There are links between the two files, but further research will have to show to what extent the two groups were intertwined.”

The Antwerp inquiry led to five arrests, including one in Eupen, near the German border, and the Brussels one three. 

The statement said at least five of those detained were suspected of planning to “commit a terrorist attack in Belgium”. 

In both cases the suspects have been detained but not yet charged.

Sources spoke of more than one possible attack, but the statement said the eventual target or targets had not yet been determined.

Both inquiries involved a house search in Molenbeek, an inner city Brussels district with a large North African population that has been cited in previous terror probes. 

The arrests mark the first such inquiry to be made public in Belgium since November, when a Brussels man was charged with terrorism offences over the stabbing to death of a police officer. 

Between 2016 and 2018, Belgium faced a wave of deadly jihadist attacks. 

The trial of nine suspects accused of taking part in the March 2016 suicide bombings that killed 32 people is currently underway in Brussels.   

(AFP)