15 Years' Jail for Planned Attack on Taylor Swift Concert in Vienna
A 21-year-old man has been sentenced to a lengthy prison term for planning an Islamist attack on a concert by the US singer in Vienna.
Vienna attack planner sentenced to lengthy imprisonment
A 21-year-old must spend more than a decade behind bars after a jury court found him guilty of preparing a violent assault on a musical event in the Austrian capital.
The convicted man, whose full name is not released due to Austrian privacy regulations and who is identified only as Beran A., received a fifteen-year prison sentence. The verdict also covers various other counts related to extremist violence, according to a report by the BBC.
Investigators apprehended the young man after the American foreign intelligence service CIA provided crucial information. This occurred immediately before the planned first of three completely sold-out performances by the American pop icon at Vienna's Ernst-Happel-Stadium in summer 2024. All three planned shows were subsequently cancelled at short notice, causing significant disappointment to around 200,000 ticket holders and the artist herself.
The prosecution argued that the convicted man had turned to a radical ideology and sworn allegiance to a terrorist organisation. He attempted to acquire firearms and explosives through illegal means but failed to do so.
Forensic psychiatrist Peter Hoffmann attested that the defendant had a completely unremarkable mental condition. According to Hoffmann, there was "no psychiatric basis whatsoever" for his radicalisation.
The trial took place before a court in Wiener Neustadt. A second defendant, a 21-year-old Slovak named Arda K., also faced charges. He was accused of membership in a terrorist cell, but not of participation in the planned attack on the musical event. He was sentenced to a twelve-year prison term.
Immediately before sentencing, Beran A. asked the judges for forgiveness. The jurors then withdrew for several hours to deliberate.
The US musician commented on the incident after the foiled attack. She stated that the events had caused her to develop "new fears". The concert cancellations had triggered "enormous guilt" in her. In a message to her followers, however, she also emphasised her gratitude towards the security authorities: thanks to their efforts, only the cancellation of events was to be lamented, not the loss of human life.
Source: Google News MT