21-year-old Austrian man sentenced to 15 years in prison for plotting ISIS-inspired terror attack at Taylor Swift concert

A 21-year-old Austrian man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting to planning a terrorist attack at a concert in Vienna during Taylor Swift’s Eras tour.The man was identified in court as “Beran A” under Austrian privacy laws. He admitted planning an attack on a sold-out Swift concert at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Arena in August 2024. The planned attack could cause massive casualties.The concert was canceled shortly before it was scheduled to begin after Austrian authorities received a tip from the CIA about the alleged plot. Nearly 200,000 fans are expected to attend the three shows. Beran A was arrested days before the concert. He became radicalized online and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. He planned to attack concertgoers using knives or homemade explosives. He also attempted without success to obtain illegal weapons, including machine guns and grenades.Court documents say he used Islamic State videos as guidance when trying to build explosives.During Thursday’s hearing in Wiener Neustadt, south of Vienna, Beran A apologized before the jury retired to consider its verdict.“I just want to say I’m sorry,” he told the court.Forensic psychiatrist Peter Hofmann said the defendant showed no signs of mental illness, adding that there was “no psychiatric explanation” for his radicalization.Belan A’s lawyer, Anna Mair, argued that her client was “not an ideological mastermind.”The case attracted international attention because it targeted Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Time Tour, one of the largest concert tours in history.Swift later spoke publicly about the canceled Vienna concert, describing the event as “a bloodbath situation” that was narrowly avoided. A documentary about the Eras tour also revealed that the singer learned about the alleged bomb plot while traveling to Austria.Another man, Arda K, 21, from Slovakia, is also on trial in the same case. Both men have ties to the Islamic State group.However, authorities say Arda K was not directly involved in the Taylor Swift concert conspiracy.The two men have been linked to attack plans in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and other cities in Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates.Beran A denied separate charges related to the international plots but admitted involvement in the planned Vienna concert attack.