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A man accused of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and plotting to attack one of Taylor Swift’s concerts in Vienna nearly two years ago pleaded guilty as his trial began Tuesday, Austrian media reported.
Austrian outlets Kurier and Kronen Zeitung reported that he pleaded guilty to charges related to the conspiracy surrounding the August 2024 concert. Swift’s three scheduled performances were canceled as a precaution.
The defendant, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen – known only as Beran A. in accordance with Austrian privacy laws – faces charges including terrorism and being a member of a terrorist organization, and his lawyer previously said he plans to plead guilty to more charges. He could face up to 20 years in prison.
He was 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 2024 on behalf of the Islamic State. Beran A. and Arda K. never made their attack.
Beran A.’s attorney, Anna Mair, on Monday told The Associated Press that her client plans to plead guilty to multiple charges but did not specify which ones.
The apartment was searched the previous day
Only Beran A. was charged in connection with the Taylor Swift conspiracy. He was said to be planning 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 to “kill as many people as possible,” authorities said in 2024.
Beran A. is also said to have been in contact with other members of the Islamic State 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 – the day before the Swift’s planned debut in the country – they found the materials to make the bombs.
The US provided insufficient discretion in the decision to cancel the concerts.
Swift called the cancellation “horrible” in an Instagram post two weeks later.
“The reason for the cancellation of these games gave me another fear, I am very guilty because there are many people who planned to come to those games,” he said.
Apart from the Austrian fans, fans of the singer who traveled from outside the country to attend the event of his record-breaking Eras Tour were left frustrated. Fans then turned Vienna into a city-wide trading post for friendship rings and songs.
A planned attack elsewhere is suspected
The Vienna plot drew comparisons to the 2017 bombing of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, which killed 22 people. 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.
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 fulfill their plans in Turkey and the UAE Beran A. returned to Vienna and allegedly started plotting to attack the Swift concert there.
