Jihadist’s chilling Taylor Swift plot for ‘Red Bull’ terror attack | World | News
The suspect is in court in Austria (Image: Getty)
An alleged Islamic State (ISIS) sympathizer planned to carry out a terrorist attack on a Taylor Swift concert with a bomb hidden inside a can of Red Bull, the court heard. The trial of 21-year-old Beran Aliyi has begun in Austria for allegedly targeting the crowd watching the music superstar at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium.
The court heard investigators raided Aliyi’s home the day before the concerts started and found suspected bomb-making materials.
More than 195,000 fans of the singer, also known as ‘Swifties’, had booked tickets for her three-day performance at the venue. Harrowing details of the alleged planned attack are drawing sickening comparisons to the 2017 attack by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, who killed 22 people. The bomb went off at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans left, making it the deadliest extremist attack in the UK in recent years.
Aliyi allegedly planned to drive a car past security with the fake police turning on blue lights and using the siren before detonating the explosive, German newspaper Bild reported.
The plan was blocked, but Austrian authorities still canceled Swift’s three August 2024 performances. Fans who flew from around the world to Austria to attend the singer’s record-breaking Eras Tour performance were devastated, but rallied to turn Vienna into a city-wide trading post for friendship bracelets and singularities.
READ MORE: Taylor Swift made our house look super cool – the truth is it’s a ghost town
READ MORE: Man who planned to attack Taylor Swift concert indicted on terrorism charges
ISIS-inspired suspect planned to attack Taylor Swift concert (Image: Getty)
The 21-year-old suspected defendant faces charges including terrorism offenses and membership in a terrorist organization. He can be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
He is on trial together with Arda K., whose full name has not been disclosed. Together with a third man, they planned to carry out simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates in Ramadan 2024 on behalf of ISIS. Aliyi and Arda K. did not carry out the attack.
Aliyi’s defense lawyer, Anna Mair, said her client planned to plead guilty to most of the charges but did not specify which ones.
Aliyi allegedly planned to target spectators gathered outside Ernst Happel Stadium, up to 30,000 each night, with knives or homemade explosives, including 65,000 inside the venue.
Authorities said the suspect hopes to “kill as many people as possible” in 2024. The United States provided intelligence that supported the decision to cancel the concerts.
Aliyi also allegedly established contacts with other members of the Islamic State group ahead of the planned attack. They discussed buying guns and making bombs, and the defendant also tried to buy illegal weapons in the days before the demonstration, prosecutors said. He also swore allegiance to the militant group.
The suspect was referred to the courthouse in Vienna (Image: Getty)
Authorities searched his apartment on August 7, 2024, and found bomb-making materials. The concerts were scheduled to start the next day.
“The cancellation of our Vienna shows was devastating,” Swift wrote in a statement posted on Instagram two weeks later. “The reason for the cancellations gave me a new sense of fear and tremendous guilt because so many people had planned to come to these shows.”
The trial is being held in Wiener Neustadt, about an hour south of Vienna. The hearings are planned to continue on May 12. Three attacks planned in Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and UAE
Prosecutors also accused Arda K. of terrorism in the case in connection with the simultaneous attack plan in Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates.
Hasan E., the third person in this conspiracy, allegedly stabbed a security guard at the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on March 11, 2024. Austrian prosecutors said he was arrested and remains in pre-trial detention in Saudi Arabia.
Aliyi and Arda K.’s plans in Türkiye and the UAE did not come true. Aliyi returned to Vienna and allegedly began planning an attack on a Swift concert there.
