Photo Credit: Jacek Dylag
An Austrian court convicted a man who planned to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna two years ago, sentencing him to 15 years in prison. The trial and ongoing investigation have revealed the involvement of a far broader and involved terrorist network.
Nearly two years after authorities foiled a plot to target people outside the Ernst Happel Stadium attending Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert, an Austrian court has convicted a 21-year-old man and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. The defendant, an Austrian citizen known as ‘Beran A.’, was sentenced on multiple charges, including terrorist offenses and membership in a terrorist organization, after pleading guilty last month.
Beran A. was the only person charged in connection with the Taylor Swift plot, but he faced trial alongside two other men who planned to carry out simultaneous attacks in Istanbul, Dubai, and Mecca during Ramadan. None were successful in carrying out their planned attacks.
These men allegedly networked with other members of the Islamic State group and discussed purchasing weapons and making bombs, as well as swearing allegiance to the militant group. Beran A said he planned to target concert attendees gathered outside Ernst Happel Stadium, as well as those inside the venue, “with knives or homemade explosives.” The plan was to “kill as many people as possible.”
According to prosecutors, Beran A. received training from other Islamic State members on how to handle explosives, and made several attempts to purchase various firearms and a hand grenade through illegal dealers. His plan was to import the weapons into Austria.
Thanks to a tip from the CIA, authorities searched his apartment in August 2024, the day before the concert was scheduled to take place, and confirmed finding materials to make bombs. Beran A. was subsequently arrested.
“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating. 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,” Swift wrote in a statement on social media two weeks after the incident. “But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.”
