A man accused of planning an Islamist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna in 2024, which was foiled at the 11th hour, pleaded guilty as his trial opened on Tuesday.
The defendant, an Austrian identified as Beran A, 21, also admitted to plotting an attack in Dubai that was never carried out, but denied helping another man to carry out a knife attack in Saudi Arabia.
He was arrested on August 7, 2024, the day before the first of three planned concerts by the US pop star in Vienna.
All three dates were then cancelled, to the dismay of fans and Swift herself who wrote afterwards that it was "devastating".
Beran A is accused along with Slovak national Arda K, of planning the attacks in the Middle East, and providing moral support to the third man, who has been arrested on suspicion of carrying out a knife attack in Makkah.
"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, as is common in German-speaking countries 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 ISIS 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 terrorism-related offences as well as belonging to a criminal organisation and making a dangerous threat, and faces 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted.
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 in relation to his trip to Dubai. They pleaded not guilty, however, to providing moral support to the third man, arguing he was already determined and the driving force behind those plans.
Tuesday was the first of four scheduled trial days.
