Man pleads guilty to plotting attack on Taylor Swift concert

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A 21-year-old man pleaded guilty on Tuesday in an Austrian court over a jihadist plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert, which led to the cancellation of the Vienna leg of the US megastar’s “Eras” tour.

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Three dates in Swift’s record-breaking tour were cancelled in the summer of 2024 after authorities warned of the alleged Islamic State group plot.

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The accused, named as Beran A., was led into the courtroom by masked police personnel at the start of his trial on terror offences and other charges in a court in Wiener Neustadt, outside Vienna.

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“He pleads guilty to all except attempted murder,” his lawyer Anna Mair told AFP.

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Another 21-year-old, Arda K., is standing trial together with Beran A., according to Austrian news agency APA.

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The duo, together with a third Austrian, Hasan E., imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, are accused of forming a “highly dangerous IS terror cell” planning to carry out several attacks in the name of IS, prosecutors say.

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Beran A. was allegedly planning an attack at the packed Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna during Swift’s concert.

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He testified in court that he had not yet devised a clear plan for the attack before he was arrested in August 2024, two days before the show.

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The Austrian has been in detention since his arrest.

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Planning the attack on the concert, he allegedly tried to get weapons and worked on making a shrapnel bomb “specific to IS attacks”, and received instructions from other IS members on handling explosives, according to prosecutors.

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In his testimony, Beran A. said he had become convinced that he “had to wage jihad”, but was “afraid to die”, according to APA.

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He said he failed to make a bomb, but communicated in several chat groups, including with a high-ranking IS member ahead of the concert.

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“I was looking for encouragement. I liked getting attention,” he said.

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– Attack plans abroad –

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Beran A. is accused of having been a member of a terror organisation from May 2023 “by planning and preparing a terrorist attack” on Swift’s concert, prosecutors have said.

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By sharing IS propaganda through various messaging services and other offences, he participated and “openly aligned himself” with IS, they added.

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He is also alleged to have been involved in other attack plans abroad.

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In court, he testified how he travelled to Dubai and bought two knifes to target security officials in March 2024.

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But when he looked for a police officer or soldier to stab, he suffered a “panic attack” and finally “retreated”, feeling a “sense of failure”, he said.

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Hasan E., the suspect jailed in Saudi Arabia, is accused of stabbing a security official in Mecca in 2024 and injuring four others before he was overpowered.

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Austria’s embassy is in contact with him and following ongoing judicial proceedings, according to the foreign ministry.

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Beran A. and Arda K. are accused of encouraging Hasan E. ahead of the attack — an accusation Beran A. denies, his lawyer said.

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She said in court that Hasan E. “manipulated” Beran A. The two became friends during their studies in a Vienna business academy.

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– Thwarted plot –

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The trial of the two defendants has been scheduled across four court dates, until May 21.

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Beran A., who was arrested two days before the first Swift concert was to take place, faces up to 20 years in prison on the charges.

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The concert plot was thwarted with the help of US intelligence.

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Swift later wrote on social media that “the reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many had planned on coming to those shows”.

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Last year, a Berlin court convicted a Syrian teenager of contributing to the plot to attack the Swift concert.

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The 16-year-old was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

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