(Adnkronos) – A Syrian minor, Mohamed A., has been charged by the German federal prosecutor’s office with collaborating with a then 19-year-old Austrian, Beran A., in an attempt to carry out an attack on Taylor Swift’s concerts last August in Vienna. Three sold-out concerts with 65,000 spectators were canceled after the discovery that two young men, the Syrian indicted today and the Austrian who was part of the ISIS cell in eastern Austria, had planned to launch themselves with a car packed with explosives against the fans waiting to enter the Ernst Happel stadium to attend the event.
“By April 2024 at the latest, Mohammad A. adheres to the ideology of the terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS),” the German federal prosecutor said in a statement. “Between mid-July and August 2024 he was in contact with a young Austrian adult who was planning a bomb attack during a concert by singer Taylor Swift in Vienna,” he added.
The suspicions against the young Syrian, who is not in custody, are that he helped the Austrian extremist plan the attack, including translating bomb-making instructions from Arabic and putting him in contact with an ISIS jihadist abroad. He is also accused of providing him with the text of the oath of allegiance to ISIS.
Beran A, who is now 20 years old and originally from Ternitz, south of Vienna, was arrested before the concerts following a tip from the CIA, according to which the two hoped to kill a large number of concertgoers. According to the German prosecutor’s office, Mohammad A. is accused of supporting a foreign terrorist organization and of having prepared a serious act of violence that endangered the state.
