A 21-year-old Austrian man has pleaded guilty to plotting a terrorist attack on Taylor Swift’s sold-out concerts in Vienna, nearly two years after the plot forced the cancellation of three Eras Tour shows and sent shockwaves through the global live music industry.
Beran A., identified only by his first name and initial under Austrian privacy rules, entered his guilty plea as his trial opened Tuesday in Wiener Neustadt, a city about an hour south of Vienna. His defense attorney confirmed the plea in remarks outside the courthouse. He faces charges including terrorist offenses and membership in a terrorist organization, and could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. He has been in custody since August 2024.
“Of course, he deeply regrets it all,” his lawyer Anna Mair told reporters. “It is also due to the long period of detention that he says it was the biggest mistake of his life.”
Taylor Swift Vienna Concert Plot: What Beran A. Planned
The Vienna concert attack plot was chilling in scale. Beran A. allegedly planned to target crowds gathered outside Ernst Happel Stadium, where up to 30,000 people stood outside each night and another 65,000 were inside the venue. He intended to use knives or homemade explosives, with the stated goal of killing as many people as possible. Prosecutors say he used video instructions issued by ISIS on how to make a shrapnel bomb, produced the explosive triacetone peroxide, and tried to illegally purchase weapons, including a machine gun and hand grenade.
He also swore allegiance to ISIS and networked with other members of the group ahead of the planned attack. US intelligence fed into the decision to cancel the concerts. Austrian authorities moved quickly, and the plot was thwarted before any harm was done. Still, all three Vienna performances were called off.
Swift responded publicly weeks later. “Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating,” she wrote on Instagram. “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 cancellations drew comparisons to the 2017 suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, which killed 22 people and remains the deadliest extremist attack in the UK in recent years.
ISIS Terror Plot Also Targeted UAE, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia
The Vienna concert attack was not an isolated plan. Beran A. is standing trial alongside co-defendant Arda K., a Slovak national. Together with a third man, all school friends, they planned coordinated attacks in Dubai, Istanbul, and Mecca during Ramadan 2024, each carrying out one attack in the name of ISIS.
Beran A. admitted to traveling to Dubai with the intention of carrying out an attack, telling the court he had identified potential victims including tourists and soldiers but could not go through with it. “I thought, I have to carry out the attack; at the same time, I’m afraid of dying,” he said. Arda K. pleaded guilty to traveling to Istanbul with similar intent.
The third man, identified as Hasan E., allegedly stabbed a security guard with a knife at the Grand Mosque in Mecca on March 11, 2024. He was arrested and remains in pretrial detention in Saudi Arabia.
Beran A. pleaded not guilty to charges related to the wider simultaneous attack plan and to providing moral support to Hasan E. The trial continues May 12.
