A 21-year-old man pleaded guilty to planning a thwarted Islamist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna on the opening day of his trial near the Austrian capital on Tuesday.
The defendant, identified only as Beran A under Austrian privacy laws, was arrested on Aug. 7, 2024, the day before the first of three planned concerts by the American superstar in Vienna.
All three dates were then cancelled, to the dismay of the singer’s fans, with the plot drawing comparisons to the deadly 2017 attack on an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, carried out by Islamist extremist Salman Abedi.
‘Devastating’ for Swift
“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating,” Swift wrote in a statement posted to Instagram two weeks after the plot was foiled.
“The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”
The United States provided intelligence that fed into the decision to cancel the concerts.
Beran A stands accused, along with Slovak national Arda K, of planning further attacks in the Middle East, and of providing moral support to a third man who has been arrested on suspicion of carrying out a knife attack in the Muslim city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The three accused were school friends, with the third known as Hasan E and described as an Iraqi national. All three were teenagers at the time of the alleged offences.
‘Guilty in Part’ Admission
“I plead guilty in part,” Beran A told the presiding judge at the start of his questioning. Asked if he was pleading guilty to the charges relating to the planned concert attack, he said: “Yes.”
Both defendants covered their faces as they entered the courtroom to avoid being identifiable in photographs.
Beran A is accused of using video instructions from the Islamist terrorist group ISIS on how to build a shrapnel bomb, producing a small amount of the explosive triacetone peroxide, and illegally attempting to buy weapons, including a hand grenade and a machine gun, for the planned attack.
Authorities said that Beran A took an oath of allegiance to the leader of ISIS before plotting the attacks. He is charged with various terrorism-related offences, as well as making a dangerous threat and belonging to a criminal organization.
He faces between 10 and 20 years in prison if found guilty.
Taylor Swift poses at the red carpet during the 67th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 2, 2025. (Daniel Cole/Reuters)School Friends Alleged Plot
Prosecutors allege the pair on trial in Austria, and the third suspect, had planned to carry out one attack each across the Middle East before the Swift concerts, in March 2024 during the Muslim month of Ramadan.
Beran A allegedly intended to carry out an attack in Dubai, Arda K in Istanbul, and the third man in Mecca.
Each of the three is said to have traveled to his designated city, with only the third believed to have launched an attack. Hasan E was arrested on suspicion of stabbing a security official at Mecca’s Grand Mosque and remains in custody in Saudi Arabia.
Arda K pleaded guilty to travelling to Istanbul with the intention of carrying out an attack, as did Beran A in relation to his trip to Dubai.
The pair pleaded not guilty to providing moral support to the third man, arguing he was already determined to carry out the attack and was the driving force behind those plans.
Beran A’s defense attorney Anna Mair, said her client pleaded guilty to the charges related to the concert plot.
‘Deep Regrets’
“Of course, he deeply regrets it all,” Mair said outside the court, adding that he describes it as “the biggest mistake of his life.”
Austrian media reported that he also pleaded guilty to being a member of a terrorist organization.
Beran A was the only defendant charged in connection with the concert plot. He pleaded not guilty to some of the charges related to the plot for three other planned attacks.
Prosecutors say he planned to target spectators gathered outside Ernst Happel Stadium—expected to be up to 30,000 each night, with another 65,000 inside the venue—with knives or homemade explosives.
Beran A intended to “kill as many people as possible,” authorities said in 2024.
Swift’s representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
The trial is being held in Wiener Neustadt, about an hour south of Vienna. The proceedings are set to resume on May 12.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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