In a series of co-ordinated dawn raids across Brussels and Leuven this morning, Belgian federal police arrested eight men suspected of plotting an attack against Julien Moinil, Brussels’ Public Prosecutor.
Eighteen properties were searched in the operation, which brought to a head a four-month investigation triggered by intelligence received in July. That indicated an assassination contract had been taken out on one of Belgium’s most prominent judicial figures.
Federal prosecutor Ann Fransen confirmed the arrests in a terse statement, stressing that the principal suspects have prior convictions for organised drug trafficking. She said they are believed to operate within the Albanian criminal networks that have increasingly dominated the Belgian cocaine trade.
“Information reached us in July of a plot to carry out an attack on the person of the Brussels King’s Prosecutor,” Fransen said.
“The threat was treated with the utmost seriousness. Over recent months the Brussels federal judicial police, directed by an investigating judge, have pursued every lead with considerable resources.
“Several magistrates from the federal prosecutor’s office have also been assigned full-time to the file,” she said.
The eight detainees are currently being questioned.
The investigating judge will decide later today or tomorrow whether they will be formally placed under arrest.
Authorities refused to confirm the existence of a definitive plot. “At this stage it is not possible either to confirm or to rule out an assassination plans,” Fransen said.
The operation does underline the extreme pressure now being exerted on senior Belgian magistrates by international drug syndicates.
Immediately after the July intelligence was received, the threat level for Moinil was raised to 4 – the highest category – triggering round-the-clock armed protection.
The prosecutor, known for his uncompromising stance against narcotics trafficking, has been a repeated target.
During his earlier tenure at the federal prosecutor’s office, Moinil was twice placed under protection.
The first occasion followed a major investigation into a multimillion-euro luxury-car fraud ring; the second arose from the EncroChat takedown, when intercepted messages reportedly revealed a €1 million contract on his life issued by Albanian organised-crime figures.
Moinil himself has never publicly complained about the risks.
In a February interview he said simply: “I do this work to protect people and I accept the consequences.”
Fransen used the operation to renew her call for stronger statutory protection for judges and police officers who confront organised crime.
“This investigation once again demonstrates the absolute necessity of better protecting the police officers and magistrates who fight organised criminality without respite and who, as a result, find themselves in the crosshairs of these organisations,” she said.
For now, the eight suspects remain in custody, the raided properties are being combed for any evidence and Moinil continues his work under heavy guard.
Julien Moinil, Brussels’ Chief Prosecutor, was put under police protection following threats from the city’s criminal drug underworld. https://t.co/Bw177Y80AE
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) July 8, 2025
