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An Austrian court has convicted a man of planning to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna during her record-breaking Eras Tour. He has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The state court in Wiener Neustadt, south of the capital, found the 21-year-old defendant, an Austrian citizen known only as Beran A. in line with Austrian privacy rules, guilty on multiple charges including those related to the concert.
Beran A was accused of planning to use knives or homemade explosives to kill people at one of the singer’s shows in the capital in August 2024. The concert plot was thwarted, but Austrian authorities still cancelled Swift’s three performances at the Ernst Happel Stadium.
Beran A also networked with IS members ahead of the planned attack and swore allegiance to the militant group, it was alleged.
Before the verdict, he told the court he was sorry. In short final words to the court before it was adjourned, Beran A said: “I would just like to say that I am sorry.”
His defence lawyer, Anna Mair, said her client was “not an ideological mastermind”.
Court psychiatrist Peter Hoffmann said Beran A showed no signs of mental illness, adding that there was “no psychiatric explanation” for his radicalisation.
Beran A was also accused at the same trial of plotting separately, with two school friends, to carry out a solo attack earlier in 2024 in separate Middle Eastern cities. He and co-defendant, known only as Arda K, admitted they travelled to Dubai and Istanbul respectively to carry out attacks but then did not follow through.
Arda K was given a 12-year jail sentence.