Taylor Swift fans sing together on StephansPlatz in Vienna, Austria on August 8, 2024.
Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images
- Austrian prosecutors have charged a 21-year-old man with planning a terrorist attack on Taylor Swift's Vienna concert, leading to the cancellation of her 2024 “Eras” tour dates in Austria.
- The IS-affiliated suspect reportedly planned the shrapnel bomb attack while receiving instructions from IS members and sought weapons.
- The plot, foiled with the help of US intelligence, also included plans for other attacks abroad, with the suspect facing up to 20 years in prison.
Austrian prosecutors have filed terror charges against a 21-year-old man over a plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, he said on Monday, leading to the cancellation of the US megastar's show in the Alpine nation in 2024.
Three dates of Swift's record-breaking “Erases” tour were canceled in summer 2024 after authorities warned of a conspiracy.
Prosecutors said the main suspect, who has been in custody since his arrest in August 2024, faces terrorist crimes and other charges.
The Austrian is accused of being a member of a terrorist organization since May 2023 by “planning and preparing a terrorist attack on the concert of singer Taylor Swift,” they said in a statement.
He said that by sharing IS propaganda through various messaging services and other crimes, they participated and “openly associated themselves” with IS.
According to prosecutors, while planning the attack on the concert, he allegedly tried to obtain weapons and worked on making a shrapnel bomb “specific to IS attacks” and received instructions from other IS members on how to handle explosives.
He is also accused of being involved in other attack plans abroad, including in Dubai and Istanbul, although those attacks never succeeded.
If found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Last year, a Berlin court convicted a Syrian teenager of contributing to a plot to attack a Swift concert.
The 16-year-old was given an 18-month suspended sentence.
The conspiracy was foiled with the help of American intelligence.
Swift later wrote on social media that “the reason for the cancellation filled me with a new sense of dread and tremendous guilt because so many people had planned to come to those shows”.
Read | Fear, guilt and gratitude: Taylor Swift talks Vienna concert cancellation and thwarting attack plot