By Francois Murphy
WIENER NEUSTADT, Austria, May 28 (Reuters) – An Austrian court on Thursday sentenced a 21-year-old man who admitted planning a foiled Islamist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna in 2024 to 15 years in prison, finding him guilty of various, mainly terrorism-related offences.
Beran A, whose last name has not been made public in accordance with Austrian privacy rules, was arrested on August 7, 2024, the day before the first of three planned concerts by the U.S. pop star in the Austrian capital.
All three dates were then cancelled, to the dismay of fans and of Swift, who wrote afterwards that it was “devastating.” While crowds of disappointed fans sang together in Vienna then to console themselves, neither Swift nor any “Swifties” appeared at the trial in Wiener Neustadt, a town south of the capital.
‘SORRY’ DID NOT SWAY THE JURY
Beran A, who is Austrian, pleaded guilty to charges related to the planned attack, which carried a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He covered his face with a ring binder as he entered the courtroom to avoid being identifiable in pictures.
“I would just like to say that I am sorry,” he said in a final statement before the jury retired to deliberate.
It later found him guilty on almost all charges.
Beran A was found to have tried but failed to illegally buy weapons including a machinegun and hand grenade, and followed instructions in an Islamic State video entitled “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom” to produce a small amount of the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP).
He was also accused of plotting with two school friends to carry out a solo attack earlier in 2024 in separate Middle Eastern cities. He and co-defendant Arda K admitted they travelled to Dubai and Istanbul respectively to carry out attacks but then did not follow through.
When his trial opened last month, Beran A told the court that he roamed Dubai in March 2024 in search of victims to stab but had a panic attack when he tried to strike. Upon his return to Vienna, he resolved to go further and eventually chose the concert as his target.
He and Arda K denied providing moral support to the third man, who was arrested in Mecca on suspicion of stabbing a security official at the holy city’s Grand Mosque. He is still in custody in Saudi Arabia.
DEFENDANT ‘BURST INTO TEARS’
The eight-person jury found Beran A guilty by unanimous decision on all but two of 15 points put to it, including providing moral support to the third man. The two points on which he was found not guilty, both by a 6-2 margin, were lesser ones, dealing with issues like spreading IS propaganda.
While neither defendant showed much emotion in the courtroom, Beran A’s lawyer Anna Mair said that was not the case when they spoke privately.
“When he understood he had been found guilty in relation to Mecca, he burst into tears. I think that was simply because this big weight that these two years of being under investigation brought with them fell from his shoulders,” she told reporters.
Arda K was found guilty unanimously on all charges and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Both men’s lawyers said they had not yet decided whether to appeal.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy in Wiener Neustadt, Austria; Additional reporting by Louisa Off, Anja Guder and Alexandra Schwarz-GoerlichEditing by Hugh Lawson, Matthew Lewis and David Gregorio)
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