A 21-year-old Austrian man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to planning an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack on Taylor Swift's Eras Tour concerts in Vienna nearly two years ago, leading to the cancellation of three sold-out shows. Beran A. faces up to 20 years in prison after admitting membership in a terrorist organization and the Swift plot, but pleaded not guilty to related charges for attacks elsewhere. His trial in Wiener Neustadt, south of Vienna, continues on May 12 alongside co-defendant Arda K.
Beran A., identified under Austrian privacy rules, entered the plea as his trial began. His lawyer, Anna Mair, said outside court that her client 'deeply regrets it all' and called it 'the biggest mistake of his life.' Mair told the court, 'My client has caused a great deal of fear and panic... But please try to look beyond the headlines.'
Prosecutors said Beran pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, networked with members on weapons and bombs, and prepared explosives using ISIS videos. He planned to target crowds outside Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium—up to 30,000 gathered nightly, with 65,000 inside—with knives or homemade bombs to 'kill as many people as possible.' The plot echoed the 2017 Ariana Grande concert bombing in Manchester that killed 22.
Authorities, tipped by U.S. intelligence, raided his apartment on August 7, 2024—one day before the first concert—and found bomb-making materials. CIA Deputy Director David Cohen praised the intelligence sharing that foiled the advanced plot. Beran has been in custody since.
Only Beran faces charges for the Swift plot, though tried with Arda K. for separate ISIS plans in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the UAE during Ramadan 2024. A third man, Hasan E., remains detained in Saudi Arabia after stabbing a security guard at Mecca's Grand Mosque in March 2024. A fourth, Mohammed A., received an 18-month suspended sentence in Germany last year for translating bomb-making materials.
Taylor Swift, learning of the threat mid-flight, expressed devastation in an Instagram post: 'Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating... filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt.' In her Disney+ documentary, she added, 'Never in my life did I think we would have a terrorist plot... We dodged a massacre.'
