Man jailed for 15 years over plot to attack Taylor Swift concert in Vienna

Reuters

A 21-year-old Austrian man, who has admitted plotting a jihadist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna during the singer's Eras tour in August 2024, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The man, named only as Beran A in line with Austrian privacy laws, also admitted other terrorism-related offences, including an attack in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

He told the court earlier on Thursday that he was sorry, before the jury at a court in Wiener Neustadt retired for several hours to consider its verdicts.

Beran A was arrested after a tip-off from the CIA, just before the first of three sold-out Taylor Swift concerts that were supposed to take place in Vienna's Ernst Happl stadium.

All three Austrian shows were immediately cancelled, to the dismay of almost 200,000 fans, and the singer herself.

Swift previously described how her record-breaking Eras Tour had narrowly "dodged a massacre situation". A tour documentary revealed the musician had learned about the bomb plot while travelling to Austria.

Prosecutors said Beran A had become radicalised and had sworn allegiance to jihadist group Islamic State (IS). They said he tried but had not succeeded in buying weapons illegally, including a machine gun and a hand grenade.

Court psychiatrist Peter Hoffmann said Beran A showed no signs of mental illness, adding that there was "no psychiatric explanation" for his radicalisation.

Beran A, and another 21-year-old man named as Arda K from Slovakia, were on trial in Wiener Neustadt, a city south of Vienna, accused of being part of a cell with jihadist group Islamic State (IS). Arda K was not involved in the Taylor Swift plot.

Earlier on Thursday, the prosecution said the pair had also been complicit in planning attacks in Mecca and other cities several months earlier.