An Austrian court on Thursday sentenced 21-year-old Austrian national, Beran A, who admitted plotting a foiled jihadist attack on a Taylor Swift concert to 15 years in jail.<\/p>\n
In the summer of 2024, Pop star Taylor Swift was forced to cancel the three Vienna shows of her record-breaking \u201cEras\u201d tour after authorities warned of the terrorist plot by the so-called Islamic State group (IS).<\/p>\n
A jury found Beran guilty on all counts after deliberating for hours. The judge then handed him a 15-year jail sentence. The maximum jail sentence for the offence is 20 years.<\/p>\n
Beran A. went on trial last month on terror offences and other charges in Wiener Neustadt outside Vienna.<\/p>\n
The defendant, who was arrested the day before the cancelled concert and has been detained since, pleaded guilty to all charges except being an accomplice to attempted murder.<\/p>\n
Bomb-making instructions<\/strong><\/p>\n Another 21-year-old, Arda K., who was on trial with Beran A., was sentenced to 12 years in jail.<\/p>\n The sentences can still be appealed.<\/p>\n In their closing remarks, both defendants apologised.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to say that I\u2019m sorry,\u201d Beran A. told the court.<\/p>\n In his testimony last month, Beran A. said he had become convinced that he \u201chad to wage jihad\u201d but was \u201cafraid to die\u201d.<\/p>\n He told the court he picked the packed Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna during Swift\u2019s concert as a target.<\/p>\n He detailed how he got instructions and tried but failed to make a bomb. He also sought advice on what weapons to choose in several chat groups and from a high-ranking IS member.<\/p>\n Send a clear signal<\/strong><\/p>\n Beran A. and Arda K. were accused, together with a third Austrian, Hasan E., of forming a \u201chighly dangerous IS terror cell\u201d planning to carry out several attacks, mainly abroad, in the name of IS, prosecutors say.<\/p>\n Hasan E. is currently in prison in Saudi Arabia, accused of stabbing a security official in Mecca in 2024 and injuring four others.<\/p>\n Defence lawyer Mair used her closing argument to urge the jury to acquit Beran of the charge of encouraging Hasan to stab, arguing there was no evidence.<\/p>\n \u201cBeran is not a leader, he is not an ideological mastermind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The prosecution told the jury they had the \u201cchance to send a clear signal\u201d that those who commit crimes will be held accountable on all counts, adding Beran A. encouraged Hasan E. through \u201cintensive contact\u201d and other ways.<\/p>\n Beran A. is accused of having been a member of a terror organisation from 2023, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n By sharing IS propaganda, he participated and \u201copenly aligned himself\u201d with IS, they said.<\/p>\n The Swift concert plot was thwarted with the help of US intelligence.<\/p>\n Swift later wrote on social media that \u201cthe 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\u201d.<\/p>\n Last year, a Berlin court convicted a Syrian teenager of contributing to the plot to attack the Swift concert.<\/p>\n The 16-year-old was given an 18-month suspended sentence.<\/p>\n The post Taylor Swift concert attack plotter jailed in Austria<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Austrian court on Thursday sentenced 21-year-old Austrian national, Beran A, who admitted plotting a foiled jihadist attack on a Taylor Swift concert to 15 years in jail. In the summer of 2024, Pop star Taylor Swift was forced to cancel the three Vienna shows of her record-breaking \u201cEras\u201d tour after authorities warned of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}