The 16-year-old boy, charged with preparing a serious act of violence, was given an 18-month suspended sentence under juvenile criminal law by a German court
A German court on Tuesday convicted the 16-year-old boy accused of helping to plot a terror attack at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, Austria, in August 2024.
The teen, a Syrian national identified only as “Mohammad A” due to his young age and privacy laws, was given an 18-month suspended sentence under juvenile criminal law from the Berlin court. The suspect was previously charged with preparing a serious act of violence and supporting a terrorist act of violence abroad.
During the trial, which was closed to the public because of the teen’s age, “Mohammad A” gave a “comprehensive confession,” CBS News reports; he was previously accused of interpreting bomb-building instructions and translating an Islamic State terrorist group oath of allegiance for the main suspect of the attack plot, a then-19-year-old Austrian citizen who was also arrested on terrorism charges.
Austrian officials said that the suspects’ aim was to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue.” The main suspect allegedly stole chemicals from his workplace to build a bomb, and also planned to drive his vehicle into the crowd congregated outside the stadium while armed with knives and machetes.
A third suspect, a 17-year-old boy, was arrested by police near the Vienna stadium where Swift was set to perform; authorities said that the suspect — who also had ISIS and Al Qaeda material at his home — was employed by a company that provided unspecified services to concerts at the Ernst Happel Stadium.
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Swift was forced to cancel three shows in the Austrian city due to terror threats. While she did not immediately address the cancellations publicly, she later made a post calling the situation “devastating.”
“The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows,” she wrote on Aug. 21. “But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives. I was heartened by the love and unity I saw in the fans who banded together.”
