Teen avoids jail over plot to attack Taylor Swift Vienna concert

A 16-year-old who helped to prepare a foiled attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna last year has avoided prison.

Mohamed A was given an 18-month suspended sentence under juvenile criminal law in Berlin on Tuesday.

The Syrian, who prosecutors said was radicalised by Islamic State (IS) propaganda on the internet, was 14 when he helped the would-be attacker with a translation of bomb-making instructions from Arabic and put him in contact with an IS member.

Swift’s three sold-out gigs at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium were called off in August last year by concert organisers after the planned attack was uncovered by police.

The court said the teenager made a full confession to the charges.

At the time charges were brought, he was only identified as Mohamed A in line with German privacy laws.

Under a suspended sentence, convicts need to meet certain conditions to avoid being sent to prison.

Three suspects, all of whom were teenagers at the time, have also been detained by Austrian authorities over the plot.

An investigation into the main suspect, identified as Beran A, is ongoing. The 20-year-old Austrian, who is in custody, was arrested before the concerts following a tip-off from the CIA.

The US foreign intelligence service said the plotters had hoped to kill a large number of concert-goers.

Investigators allege Beran A had also planned to carry out an earlier attack in Dubai in March 2024.

Reports suggested it was part of a co-ordinated plot involving three simultaneous IS attacks but he had changed his mind at the last minute.

In August last year, Swift described the cancellation of her Vienna tour dates as “devastating”.

“But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” she added.