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Austrian prosecutors have filed terrorism-related charges against a 21-year-old defendant who they say planned to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna in 2024.
Vienna public prosecutors said in a statement on Monday that the unnamed defendant had declared allegiance to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, by sharing propaganda material and videos via various messaging services.
The defendant is accused of having “obtained instructions on the internet for the construction of a shrapnel bomb based on the explosive triacetone triperoxide” typically used by IS, and of having produced a small amount of the explosive.
Prosecutors also allege that the defendant had made “several attempts” to purchase weapons illegally outside the country and to bring them to Austria.
They plan to proceed with a criminal case against the unnamed suspect — who is currently in custody — in Wiener Neustadt, a town near the Austrian capital. If convicted, the defendant could face up to 20 years in jail, according to prosecutors.
The prosecutors’ statement did not name the suspect, but Austrian media identified him as Beran A and said he was arrested in August 2024. The suspect’s lawyer has previously disputed accusations made against his client, according to local media reports.
Austrian authorities cancelled three planned Taylor Swift shows in Vienna in August 2024 after they said they foiled an apparent plot to target the performances. Three people — including Beran A — were arrested that month. They were all teenagers at the time.
Last August, a 16-year-old Syrian national — identified as Mohammad A — was handed an 18-month suspended sentence by a court in Germany over the plot.
The United States provided intelligence that fed into the decision to cancel the concerts.
“We work closely with partners all over the world to monitor and disrupt threats,” then-White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said in August 2024.
“And so as part of that work, the United States did share information with Austrian partners to enable the disruption of a threat to Taylor Swift’s concerts there in Vienna.”
Additional sources • AP