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Man pleads guilty to plotting jihadist attack on 2024 Taylor Swift concert in Vienna

27 0
29.04.2026

VIENNA, Austria (AFP) — A 21-year-old man pleaded guilty on Tuesday in an Austrian court to 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The Austrian has been in detention since his arrest.

Planning the attack on the concert, he allegedly tried to get weapons and worked on making a shrapnel bomb “specific to [ISIS] attacks,” and received........

© The Times of Israel