An Austrian court is expected to deliver its verdict on Thursday in the trial of a 21-year-old man who has admitted plotting an attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna.
Three Vienna dates on Swift's Eras Tour were cancelled in August 2024 after authorities warned of the plot.
Beran A., who was arrested the day before the first of the planned concerts and has been detained since, went on trial last month in Wiener Neustadt, outside Vienna.
He is accused of planning the attack and forming a cell linked to the so-called Islamic State group.
The defendant has pleaded guilty to all charges except accomplice to attempted murder.
The jury is expected to deliver its verdict late on Thursday after the trial concludes with statements from two experts and closing arguments, according to Beran A.’s lawyer Anna Mair.
Beran A. faces up to 20 years in prison.
If he is acquitted of the charge of accomplice to attempted murder, he faces up to 10 years in prison, an "immense difference", Ms Mair said.
Another 21-year-old man, Arda K., is also on trial.
The pair, together with a third Austrian, Hasan E., who is imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, are accused of forming what prosecutors describe as a "highly dangerous IS terror cell" planning to carry out several attacks in the name of IS.
In his testimony, Beran A. said he had become convinced that he "had to wage jihad", but was "afraid to die".
He told the court he had chosen the packed Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna during Swift’s concert as his target.
He detailed how he got instructions and tried to make a bomb, but failed. He also sought advice on what weapons to choose in several chat groups and from a high-ranking IS member.
Prosecutors said Beran A. is accused of having been a member of a terror organisation from 2023.
They said that by sharing IS propaganda through various messaging services and through other offences, he participated in and "openly aligned himself" with IS.
He is also alleged to have been involved in other attack plans abroad, including encouraging Hasan E. to stab a security official in Mecca in 2024.
Hasan E. allegedly stabbed the official and injured four others before he was overpowered and detained. Beran A. has denied encouraging the attack.
The Swift concert plot was thwarted with the help of US intelligence.
Swift later wrote on social media that "the reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many had planned on coming to those shows".
Last year, a Berlin court convicted a Syrian teenager of contributing to the plot to attack the Swift concert.
The 16-year-old was given an 18-month suspended sentence.
Source: AFP
