An Austrian will plead guilty to planning an ISIS-linked terror attack at a Taylor Swift concert, her lawyer said.
The trial of a man accused of pledging allegiance to it ISIS and planning to attack one of the famous singer Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna about two years ago it started in Austria.
This plot was foiled, but the Austrian authorities still canceled three of Swift's concerts in August 2024. The singer's fans, known as Swifties, who had flown to Austria from all over the world to attend the event on her record-breaking Eras Tour were devastated, but rallied to turn Vienna into a city-wide trading post for friendship rings and singalongs.
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The defendant, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen known only as Beran A., in accordance with Austrian privacy laws, faces charges including terrorism and membership of a terrorist organization. He could face up to 20 years in prison.
He is on trial along with Arda K., whose full name has not been released. They, along with a third man, are planning simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates during Ramadan in the year 2024 on behalf of ISIS. Beran A. and Arda K. never made their attack.
Beran A.'s attorney, Anna Mair, told The Associated Press on Monday that her client plans to plead guilty to multiple charges but did not specify which ones. Only Beran A. has been charged in connection with the Taylor Swift conspiracy.
He was said to have planned to target the crowd outside the Ernst Happel Stadium – up to 30,000 each night, with another 65,000 inside the venue – with knives or improvised explosive devices. The suspect hoped that “kill as many people as possible,” said authorities in 2024. The US provided intelligence that led to their arrest.
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“They were planning to kill a lot – tens of thousands of people at this concert, including, I'm sure, many Americans – and they were very advanced on this,” said Deputy Director of the CIA David Cohen a few weeks after the arrest. “The Austrians were able to arrest those people because the agency and our partners in the intelligence community gave them (information) about what this ISIS-linked group was planning to do.”
Beran A. is suspected of being in contact with other ISIS members before the planned attack. Prosecutors said they discussed buying weapons and making bombs, and that the defendant also wanted to buy weapons illegally in the days before the game began. In addition, he pledged allegiance to the militant group.
Authorities searched his house on Aug. 7, 2024 and found bomb-making materials. The concerts were supposed to start the next day.
Swift learned of the bomb plot while on a flight to Austria, according to her Eras Tour documentary.
“The cancellation of our Vienna shows was devastating,” Swift wrote in a statement posted on Instagram two weeks later. “The reason the decision was overturned filled me with a new sense of dread, and a huge amount of guilt because so many people had planned to come to those games.”
The case is tied to Wiener Neustadt, about an hour south of Vienna. The trial will continue on May 12.
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Prosecutors also filed terrorism-related charges against Arda K. in a case related to a planned simultaneous attack in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
The third man in the plot, Hasan E., allegedly stabbed a security guard at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on March 11, 2024. He was arrested and remains in pre-trial detention in Saudi Arabia, Austrian prosecutors said.
Beran A. and Arda K. did not carry out their alleged plans in Turkey and the UAE. Beran A. returned to Vienna and began plotting to attack Swift's concert there.
The Vienna plot compares with it 2017 suicide bombing at Ariana Grande's concert in Manchester, England, 22 people died. The bomb was detonated at the end of Grande's concert as thousands of young fans left, making it the deadliest attack in the United Kingdom in recent years.
The nearly 150-show Eras Tour, which ran from March 2023 to December 2024, spanned five continents and sold more than 10 million tickets – making it the first tour in history to surpass $1billion in ticket sales.
