By Albert Otti
Vienna, Austria – A suspected Islamic State sympathizer has been formally charged a year and a half after several Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna were cancelled over a thwarted terror plot.
The now 21-year-old Austrian had planned an attack on the first of three performances at the beginning of August 2024, according to the Vienna public prosecutor’s office.
The charges, which are not yet final, include alleged terrorist offenses, participation in a criminal organization, and other offenses.
If convicted, the suspect faces up to 20 years in prison.
The young man was arrested shortly before the concerts, which were expected to attract more than 200,000 Swifties in total, and then remanded in custody.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, he had obtained instructions on how to build a shrapnel bomb on the internet, which is typical of the terrorist organization Islamic State.
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He had already produced a small amount of explosives for this purpose and had also tried several times to obtain firearms and a hand grenade via illegal dealers.
The man had also been involved in plans for other attacks, it was said.
Swift opened up about the terror scare in her recent docuseries, admitting that she was mentally “all over the place” after what could have been a “massacre situation” was foiled.
