Trial in Vienna Plans to attack Taylor Swift concert: 15 years in prison for Islamist
The cancellation of Taylor Swift's concerts in Vienna due to the threat of terrorism made headlines around the world in 2024. Now a 21-year-old Islamist has been sentenced. There was also another charge.
29.05.2026, 05:53
dpa
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- In the trial for a planned attack on a concert by US singer Taylor Swift in Vienna in August 2024, a 21-year-old Islamist has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
- The jury at the Wiener Neustadt Regional Court also found the accused, an Austrian with North Macedonian roots, guilty of forming a terrorist cell.
- He had also supported another Islamist who injured Saudi Arabian security forces in a knife attack in Mecca in 2024.
- A co-defendant was sentenced to 12 years in prison for this.
A 21-year-old Islamist has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for his plans to attack a Taylor Swift concert and for forming a terrorist cell. The Wiener Neustadt Regional Court considered it proven that the Austrian with North Macedonian roots wanted to attack fans of the US star outside the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna in August 2024.
He had also supported another Islamist who injured Saudi Arabian security forces in a knife attack in Mecca in 2024. This is considered aiding and abetting attempted murder. According to the verdict, a co-defendant, also aged 21, also committed this offense. He received 12 years in prison for this. The verdict is not final.
In a brief closing statement, the main defendant expressed remorse. "I would like to say that I am sorry." The co-defendant of the same age explained that he was almost grateful for the time he had spent in prison so far, as it had given him the opportunity for personal reorientation. He asked the court to give him a second chance.
Addiction to fame as a motive
The main defendant had confessed to the assassination plans in court. According to his testimony, the driving force was his addiction to fame in order to be seen as a hero by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia. He had thought about using knives, a truck and a bomb. According to investigators, preparations to build a shrapnel bomb were well advanced.
The IS supporter had only been arrested shortly before the concert following a tip-off from a foreign secret service. According to the public prosecutor's office, the accused was not targeting the singer, but her fans in the vicinity of the stadium. The three planned concerts with an expected attendance of almost 200,000 were canceled by the organizers as a precautionary measure.
Swift was on her acclaimed "Eras Tour" at the time. Her fans, many of whom had traveled from far and wide, were disappointed but still celebrated in Vienna's city centre.
The accusation of forming a terrorist cell is particularly serious
The accusation of forming a terrorist cell weighed particularly heavily in the proceedings. According to the court, the two defendants and the accomplice in custody in Saudi Arabia had jointly planned a series of attacks in Mecca, Dubai and Istanbul. While the suspect carried out the attack in Mecca, the two defendants had traveled to Dubai and Istanbul, but had abandoned their plans at the last second.
Their original intention had been to trigger a Muslim uprising in each case, as neither Turkey, the United Arab Emirates nor Saudi Arabia were really strictly Muslim, the public prosecutor's office explained. The main defendant had looked for possible other targets after his return from Dubai and then decided on the Swift concert.
Swift on Instagram: Am grateful to the authorities
After the arrest and the cancellation of her concerts, Swift remained silent for two weeks - and played five sold-out concerts in London in the meantime. She then wrote on Instagram that she had initially wanted to remain silent out of caution until the concerts in London had taken place. "The reason for the cancellations has caused me a new sense of anxiety and a great deal of guilt because so many people had planned to come to the shows," Swift wrote. But she was also grateful to the authorities, "because thanks to them, we were mourning concerts and not lives".
Defense lawyer: images of an attack in her head
In her reaction to the verdict, Anna Mair, the main defendant's defense lawyer, recalled another recent judge's ruling. In a terror trial at the Klagenfurt Regional Court the day before, an Islamist was sentenced to life imprisonment for the killing of a 14-year-old boy. The attack in Villach in February 2025 shook Austria. "We saw what that can do", Mair told the press about extremist attitudes. The jurors in the trial in Wiener Neustadt were very objective. "But of course it's in the minds of all of us."
