The suspect at court in Austria (Image: Getty)
An alleged Islamic State (ISIS) sympathiser plotted to carry out a terror attack on a Taylor Swift concert with a bomb hidden inside a Red Bull can, a court heard. Beran Aliyi, 21, has begun his trial in Austria, over the alleged sick plot to target the crowd watching the music superstar at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium.
A court heard investigators raided Aliyi’s apartment the day before the concerts were due to begin and discovered suspected bomb-making materials.
More than 195,000 fans of the singer, affectionately known as ‘Swifties’, had booked tickets to her three-day appearance at the venue. The harrowing details of the alleged planned attack draw sickening comparisons with the 2017 attack by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people. The bomb detonated at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving, becoming the deadliest extremist attack in the UK in recent years.
It’s alleged Aliyi planned to drive a car using fake police flashing blue lights and a siren to get past security before he would detonate his explosive device, German newspaper Bild reported.
The plot was thwarted, but Austrian authorities still canceled Swift’s three performances in August 2024. The singer’s fans who had flown to Austria from across the globe to attend a performance of her record-setting Eras Tour were devastated, but rallied to turn Vienna into a citywide trading post for friendship bracelets and singalongs.
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READ MORE: Man charged with terrorism offences over plans to attack Taylor Swift concert
The ISIS-inspired suspect planned to attack a Taylor Swift concert (Image: Getty)
The defendant, a 21-year-old suspect faces charges including terrorist offences and membership in a terrorist organisation. He could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
He is facing trial alongside Arda K., whose full name also has not been made public. They along, with a third man, planned to carry out simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates during Ramadan in 2024 in the name of the Islamic State group. Aliyi and Arda K. never carried out their attacks.
Aliyi defence solicitor, Anna Mair, said her client plans to plead guilty to most of the charges but she did not specify which ones.
Aliyi allegedly planned to target onlookers gathered outside Ernst Happel Stadium, up to 30,000 each night, with another 65,000 inside the venue, with knives or homemade explosives.
The suspect hoped to “kill as many people as possible,” authorities said in 2024. The US provided intelligence that fed into the decision to cancel the concerts.
Aliyi also allegedly networked with other members of the Islamic State group ahead of the planned attack. Prosecutors say they discussed purchasing weapons and making bombs, and that the defendant also sought to illegally buy weapons in the days ahead of the performance. In addition, he swore allegiance to the militant group.
The suspect in court in Vienna (Image: Getty)
Authorities searched his apartment on August 7, 2024 and found bomb-making materials. The concerts were scheduled to begin the next day.
“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” Swift wrote in a statement posted to Instagram two weeks later. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”
The trial is being held in Wiener Neustadt, about an hour south of Vienna. The proceedings are set to continue May 12. Three attacks planned in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and UAE
Prosecutors have also filed terrorism-related charges against Arda K. in the trial in connection with the plan for simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
The third man in that plot, Hasan E., allegedly stabbed a security guard with a knife at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on March 11, 2024. He was arrested and remains in pretrial detention in Saudi Arabia, Austrian prosecutors said.
Aliyi and Arda K. did not carry out their plans in Turkey and the UAE. Aliyi returned to Vienna and then allegedly began plotting to attack a Swift concert there.
