By Francois Murphy
WIENER NEUSTADT, Austria, April 28 (Reuters) - A 21-year-old accused of planning an Islamist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna in 2024 that was foiled at the 11th hour pleaded guilty as his trial opened on Tuesday.
The defendant, an Austrian identified as Beran A, was arrested on August 7, 2024, the day before the first of three planned concerts by the U.S. pop star in Vienna.
All three dates were then cancelled, to the dismay of fans and of Swift herself, who wrote afterwards that it was "devastating".
The trial in Wiener Neustadt, near Vienna, is focused on more than that planned attack.
OTHER ATTACKS WERE PLANNED
Beran A is also accused, along with Slovak national Arda K, of planning attacks in the Middle East they did not go through with, and of providing moral support to a third man who has been arrested on suspicion of carrying out a knife attack in Mecca.
"I plead guilty in part," Beran A said at the start of his questioning by the presiding judge. Asked if he pleaded guilty to the charges relating to the planned concert attack, he said: "Yes."
Both defendants covered their faces as they entered the courtroom, to avoid being identifiable in photographs. Beran A wore a dark blue shirt and jeans, Arda K a light blue shirt and beige trousers.
Prosecutors accuse Beran A of using video instructions by Islamic State on how to make a shrapnel bomb, producing a small amount of the explosive triacetone peroxide and illegally trying to buy weapons including a machine gun and hand grenade for the planned attack.
He has been charged with various, mainly terrorism-related offences, and faces 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted.
DEFENDANTS PLEAD NOT GUILTY IN PART
Prosecutors also allege the two and the third man, all school friends, had planned to carry out one attack each in the Middle East before the Swift concerts, in March 2024: Beran A in Dubai, Arda K in Istanbul and the third man in Mecca.
While each travelled to his designated city, only the third man is believed to have launched an attack - he was arrested on suspicion of stabbing a security official at Mecca's Grand Mosque. He is still in custody in Saudi Arabia.
Arda K pleaded guilty to travelling to Istanbul with the intention of carrying out a militant attack, as did Beran A for Dubai. They pleaded not guilty, however, to providing moral support to the third man.
Beran A told the court he had sought out potential victims while in Dubai, including tourists and soldiers, but then could not bring himself to stab anybody as he had a "panic attack" each time.
Upon his return, he remained torn.
"I thought, 'I have to carry out the attack; at the same time, I'm afraid of dying'," he told the court.
Tuesday is the first of five scheduled trial days. The last is May 28, and the presiding judge said she hoped a ruling could be reached then.
(Editing by Alison Williams and Gareth Jones)
