An Austrian court was to sentence on Thursday a 21-year-old who has pleaded guilty to plotting a foiled jihadist attack on a Taylor Swift concert.
The three Vienna dates in the US megastar’s record-breaking “Eras” tour were cancelled in the summer of 2024 after authorities warned of the Islamic State plot.
Accused of planning the attack and forming a cell of the Islamic State group, Beran A. went on trial last month on terror offences and other charges in a court in Wiener Neustadt, outside Vienna.
The Austrian — who was arrested the day before the cancelled concert and has been detained since — has pleaded guilty to all charges except being an accomplice to attempted murder.
Beran A. and co-defendant Arda K. were led into court on the final day of hearings by masked police personnel. The two men mostly sat with their heads bent down, looking at the floor in front of them.
READ ALSO: Austria Charges Youngster Over Taylor Swift Concert Attack Plot
Two psychological experts testified they saw no signs of “serious psychological illness” with Beran A. The jury is expected to deliver its verdict late Thursday after the closing arguments, according to Beran A.’s lawyer Anna Mair.
Beran A. faces up to 20 years in prison. If he is acquitted of being an accomplice to attempted murder, he faces up to 10 years in prison, an “immense difference”, Mair told AFP.
Beran A. and Arda K. are accused, together with a third Austrian, Hasan E., imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, of forming a “highly dangerous IS terror cell” planning to carry out several attacks in the name of IS, prosecutors say.
In his testimony last month, Beran A. said he had become convinced that he “had to wage jihad” but was “afraid to die”. He told the court he picked the packed Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna during Swift’s concert as a target.
He detailed how he got instructions and tried but failed to make a bomb. He also sought advice on what weapons to choose in several chat groups and from a high-ranking IS member.
Beran A. is accused of having been a member of a terror organisation from 2023, prosecutors said.
By sharing IS propaganda through messaging services and other offences, he participated and “openly aligned himself” with IS, they added.
He is also alleged to have been involved in other attack plans abroad, including encouraging Hasan E. to stab a security official in Mecca in 2024.
Hasan E. allegedly stabbed the official and injured four others before he was overpowered and detained. Beran A. has denied the accusation he encouraged the attack.
The Swift concert plot was thwarted with the help of US intelligence.
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”.
Last year, a Berlin court convicted a Syrian teenager of contributing to the plot to attack the Swift concert.
The 16-year-old was given an 18-month suspended sentence.
AFP
