Security tightened for Belgian minister after ‘threat’

Police have beefed up security for Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne citing a serious “threat”, federal prosecutors said on Saturday, after three people were arrested in the Netherlands.

Van Quickenborne has been placed under tighter police surveillance and will not perform some activities in the “coming days”, they said.

Prosecutors said three people had been detained overnight in the Netherlands and that Belgian authorities were seeking their extradition.

A spokesman for the Dutch prosecutor’s office in The Hague said the trio were all Dutch and aged 20, 29 and 48.

“My family and I are safe. Our fight against organised crime continues. With greater manpower and more resources than ever. We shall never bow to violence,” Van Quickenborne tweeted.

The Flemish daily Het Laatste Nieuws said firearms had been found in a car registered in the Netherlands and found outside the minister’s house in the city of Courtrai.

The paper said “at least” one firearm was discovered along with several bottles filled with petrol.

The prosecutor’s office did not confirm those details but said they had been “informed last week of a possible threat” to the minister which had been taken very “seriously,” leading to an investigation.