A 21-year-old Austrian man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted of plotting a terror attack at Taylor Swift’s canceled 2024 concerts in Vienna.
The man, identified only as Beran A. because of Austrian privacy laws, was found guilty of several terrorism-related offenses in state court in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, earlier this week.
An eight-person jury convicted him on most of the charges, including spreading Islamic State propaganda. He was found not guilty on two lesser counts, according to reports.
The case centered on a chilling plot that forced Swift’s three Vienna Eras Tour shows to be canceled just before she was scheduled to take the stage at Ernst Happel Stadium from Aug. 8 to Aug. 10, 2024.
Each concert was expected to draw more than 65,000 people.
Beran A. was arrested on Aug. 7, 2024, after a tip from the CIA alerted Austrian authorities to the alleged plan. Officials said the plot was advanced enough to spark immediate fears of mass casualties.
CIA Deputy Director David Cohen later said the suspects were “plotting to kill a huge number — tens of thousands of people at this concert, including, I am sure, many Americans.”
During the trial, prosecutors said Beran A. had become radicalized, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and networked with members of the terror group ahead of the planned attack.
He allegedly tried to illegally buy weapons just days before Swift’s concerts, including a machine gun and a hand grenade.
Investigators also said he followed an Islamic State video on how to make a bomb and produced a small amount of the explosive triacetone triperoxide, also known as TATP.
Authorities said bomb-making materials were found inside his apartment when he was arrested.
Prosecutors alleged Beran A. planned to target fans outside Ernst Happel Stadium using homemade explosives and knives.
His defense attorney said he admitted to charges related to the concert plot on the opening day of his trial last month. During the proceedings, Beran A. apologized in court.
“I would just like to say that I am sorry,” he said, according to Reuters.
Beran A. was tried alongside another defendant identified as Arda K.
The case also included accusations that Beran A. plotted with two school friends to carry out solo attacks in different Middle Eastern cities earlier in 2024.
He admitted traveling to Dubai to carry out a stabbing attack, but said he panicked and did not go through with it. According to Reuters, he told the court that after returning to Vienna from Dubai, he decided to go further and selected Swift’s concert as his next target.
Swift later addressed the canceled Vienna shows in an Instagram post, saying the situation left her shaken.
“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating,” she wrote. “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.”
Although the canceled concerts left fans heartbroken, many still gathered in the streets of Vienna, singing Swift’s songs and trading friendship bracelets in a show of defiance and unity.