Baron A admitted to planning an attack on Swift’s Vienna concert along with other plans abroad.
Published on 28 April 2026
A 21-year-old Austrian man has pleaded guilty to planning an attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, which was foiled the day before the event in August 2024.
As the trial began in the Austrian capital on Tuesday, Baron A pleaded guilty to charges related to plotting the attack. Three dates of Swift’s record-breaking tour were canceled after authorities warned of a conspiracy.
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The defendant is also accused of planning attacks in the Middle East with Slovak citizen Arda K and providing moral support to a third man arrested on suspicion of a knife attack in Mecca.
Beran A, from Arda, and a third man, all school friends, planned to carry out one attack each in Dubai, Istanbul and Mecca in March 2024.
While each traveled to specified cities, only the third man attacked. He was arrested on suspicion of stabbing a security officer at Mecca’s Grand Mosque and is in custody in Saudi Arabia.
Arda Kay pleaded guilty to traveling to Istanbul with the intention of carrying out an attack. Beran A agreed to travel to Dubai for this very reason. However, he pleaded not guilty to providing moral support to a third person.
Beran A told the court that he had searched for potential victims in Dubai, including tourists and soldiers, but could not bring himself to stab anyone because he would suffer “panic attacks” each time.
“I thought, ‘I have to attack; plus, I’m afraid of dying’,” he told the court.
Prosecutors also accused Beran A of using video instructions released by ISIL (ISIS) on how to make shrapnel bombs, producing the explosive triacetone peroxide, and trying to illegally purchase weapons, including machine guns and hand grenades, for the planned attack on the concert.
He has been charged with various, mainly “terrorism-related” crimes, and faces 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The hearing was the first of five hearing days ending on May 28. The presiding judge said he hoped a decision could be reached by then.
