The man who planned a terrorist attack on Taylor Swift’s concert was sentenced to 15 years in prison

The man admitted his guilt to the main charges, the news agencies AFP and Reuters say.

The man was arrested on August 7, 2024, the day before the concert. It would have been the first of three planned concerts in Vienna, where Swift was scheduled to perform as part of her The Eras Tour.

The man’s plan was to attack the crowd outside the Ernst Happel stadium with knives or self-made explosives.

All three concerts were canceled due to the terrorist threat. The planned attack was revealed with the help of US intelligence.

Eight members the jury found the man guilty of almost all 15 charges.

According to the prosecutors, the Austrian man had become radicalized and pledged his allegiance to the terrorist organization Isis.

The man tried to illegally buy weapons, including a machine gun and a hand grenade, and also manufactured a small amount of the terrorist-preferred TATP explosive, according to Islamic State video instructions.

The man’s lawyer Anna Mair told the news agencies that the man had burst into tears after hearing the verdict.

“I think it was simply because the weight of the two-year investigation came off his shoulders,” Mair told reporters.

The man apologized in his closing statements.

“I just want to say I’m sorry,” he said in court.

Mies told the court in March 2024 that he went around Dubai looking for victims to stab, but had a panic attack and did not carry out the attacks.

After returning to Vienna, he decided to go further and finally chose Swift’s concert as his destination.

The second defendant, also a 21-year-old Austrian man, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. According to the prosecutors, the 21-year-olds together with the third Austrian defendant formed a “very dangerous Isis terrorist cell”.

The third Austrian man accused in the case is currently in prison in Saudi Arabia, where he is accused of stabbing a security official in Mecca in 2024.