Alleged Islamic State terrorist ‘pleads guilty to Taylor Swift Vienna concert plot’

A man accused of accused of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and plotting to attack one of superstar singer Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concerts in Vienna pleaded guilty as his trial began on Tuesday, Austria media reported.

The pop superstar’s three performances in the Austrian capital were cancelled following news of the plot in August 2024.

Austrian outlets Kurier and Kronen Zeitung reported that the man pled guilty to charges related to the concert plot. It was not immediately clear what other charges he pleaded guilty to.

The defendant, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen identified only as Beran A. in line with privacy rules in the European country, faced charges including terrorist offences and membership in a terrorist organisation.

His defence attorney previously said he planned to plead guilty to most of the charges. He could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

He is facing trial alongside Arda K., whose full name also has not been made public.

open image in gallery

The pair, along with a third man, allegedly planned to carry out simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates during Ramadan in 2024 in the name of the Islamic State group. Beran A. and Arda K. never carried out any attacks.

Only Beran A. was charged in connection with the Taylor Swift plot. He allegedly planned to target onlookers gathered outside Ernst Happel Stadium — up to 30,000 each night, with another 65,000 inside the venue — with knives or homemade explosives.

The suspect hoped to “kill as many people as possible”, authorities said in 2024.

The US provided intelligence that fed into the decision to cancel the concerts.

Beran A. also allegedly networked with other members of the Islamic State group ahead of the planned attack.

open image in gallery

Prosecutors say they discussed purchasing weapons and making bombs, and that the defendant also sought to illegally buy weapons in the days ahead of the performance. In addition, he swore allegiance to the militant group, prosecutors say.

Authorities searched his apartment on 7 August 2024 and found bomb-making materials. The concerts were scheduled to begin the next day.

“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” Swift wrote in a statement posted to Instagram two weeks later.

“The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”

The trial is being held in Wiener Neustadt, about an hour south of Vienna. The proceedings are set to continue on 12 May.

open image in gallery

Prosecutors have also filed terrorism-related charges against Arda K. in the trial in connection with the plan for simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The third man in that plot, Hasan E., allegedly stabbed a security guard with a knife at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on March 11, 2024. He was arrested and remains in pretrial 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 then allegedly began plotting to attack a Swift concert there.

The Vienna plot drew comparisons to a 2017 attack by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester that killed 22 people.

The bomb detonated at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving, becoming the deadliest extremist attack in the United Kingdom in recent years.