Vienna Neustadt, AustriaReuters —
An Austrian court on Thursday sentenced a 21-year-old to 15 years in prison on various charges, mostly related to terrorism, for planning an Islamist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna in 2024.
Beran A., whose last name has not been published in accordance with Austrian privacy rules, was arrested on August 7, 2024, the day before the first of three concerts planned by the American pop star in the Austrian capital.
All three dates were subsequently canceled, much to the dismay of fans and Swift, who later wrote that she was “devastated.” In Vienna, crowds of disappointed fans sang together to console themselves, but neither Swift nor the “Swifties” appeared at the trial in Wiener Neustadt, a town south of the capital.
Austrian Beran A. pleaded guilty to charges related to the planned attack and was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. To avoid being photographed, he covered his face with a ring binder as he entered the courtroom.
“I would like to say that I am sorry,” he said in his final statement after Thursday’s closing argument.
Belan A was found to have manufactured small quantities of the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP) following instructions from an Islamic State video entitled “Make a bomb in your mom’s kitchen” after an unsuccessful attempt to illegally purchase weapons such as machine guns and grenades.
He was also charged in the same trial with separately planning with two school friends to carry out solo attacks in separate cities in the Middle East in early 2024. He and co-defendant Arda K. admitted to traveling to Dubai and Istanbul, respectively, to carry out the attacks but then not carrying them out.
Mr Beran A told the court on the opening day of his trial last month that he wandered around Dubai in March 2024 looking for a victim to stab, but that he had a panic attack when he was about to do so. Upon returning to Vienna, he decided to go further and finally chose concerts as his goal.
But he and Arda K. denied providing moral support to a third man arrested in Mecca on suspicion of stabbing a security official at the holy Grand Mosque. He remains in custody in Saudi Arabia.
That was the focus of closing arguments, and Swift’s concert was not specifically mentioned. Beran A’s lawyer Anna Mair and Alda K’s lawyer David Jodlbauer reiterated that their clients did not provide material support to the third man, rather the opposite.
“Beran is not a leader. He is not an ideological mastermind,” Mair said in his summary.
But the jury found him guilty on all but two of the 15 counts, including providing emotional support to a third man. Alda K. was also found guilty on all charges and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
