A 21-year-old Austrian man has pleaded guilty to charges relating to a jihadist plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna in August 2024, a court has heard. The defendant, identified as Beran A under Austrian privacy rules, admitted to planning to target fans outside the Ernst Happel stadium with knives or homemade explosives.
The plot was thwarted shortly before the three scheduled concerts, but Austrian authorities cancelled the shows, devastating thousands of fans who had travelled from around the world. Swift later said the cancellations filled her with “a new sense of fear and a tremendous amount of guilt”.
Beran A, who had been in custody since his arrest in August 2024, told the presiding judge he pleaded guilty to the concert-related charges. His defence attorney, Anna Mair, said her client “deeply regrets it all” and described the plot as “the biggest mistake of his life”.
Prosecutors alleged Beran A shared Islamic State propaganda, swore allegiance to the militant group, and used IS instructions to produce a small amount of the explosive triacetone triperoxide. He also attempted to buy weapons, including a machine gun and hand grenade. Authorities found bomb-making material in his flat on 7 August 2024, the day before the first concert was due to start.
Beran A is additionally accused, alongside a Slovak national named Arda K, of planning attacks in the Middle East that were not carried out. The third co-conspirator, Hasan E, is believed to have stabbed a security guard at Mecca’s Grand Mosque in March 2024 and remains in custody in Saudi Arabia. Arda K pleaded guilty to travelling to Istanbul with intent to attack. Beran A could face up to 20 years in prison.
