VIENNA, Feb 16 (Reuters) – Austrian prosecutors have filed terrorism-related and other charges against a now 21-year-old suspect arrested shortly before a 2024 Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, who they said planned to carry out an Islamist militant attack.
The Vienna prosecutors’ office plans to bring a criminal case against the unnamed suspect in Wiener Neustadt, a town near Vienna, accusing him of producing a small amount of the explosive triacetone triperoxide and attempting to purchase weapons illegally, it said in a statement on Monday.
The statement referred to the suspect’s arrest in August 2024, the same month as three planned Swift concerts were cancelled at short notice after Austrian authorities said they had foiled an attack.
The statement from the prosecutors’ office did not name the suspect, but he was identified by Austrian media as Beran A and is the only one to have been arrested in connection with the planned attack. Beran A’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment but has previously disputed accusations made against his client.
The prosecutors’ statement said the suspect was a member of Islamic State and that he is accused of carrying out online research into a type of shrapnel bomb used by that group, and of spreading Islamic State “propaganda material” online.
If convicted he faces up to 20 years in prison, the statement added.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Alex Richardson and Sharon Singleton)
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