Teen sentenced in Berlin for role in Taylor Swift terror plot

International

FEARLESS, but for the wrong reasons.

A Berlin court convicted a Syrian teenager on Tuesday for aiding an Islamic State-inspired plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna.

The 16-year-old, identified by prosecutors as Mohammad A., was found guilty of “preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state” and “supporting a terrorist act abroad,” according to a report by Agence France-Presse.

He was handed an 18-month suspended sentence.

According to the court, Mohammad A. had been 14 when he was radicalized by Islamic State propaganda online. Judges concluded that he assisted another teenager in Austria by sending a video with bomb-making instructions and establishing contact with an IS member. Mohammad A. confessed fully during the trial.

The case is linked to a wider Austrian investigation.

Authorities there arrested three suspects — all teenagers at the time — in connection with the same plot. The main suspect, an Austrian citizen with North Macedonian roots, admitted he “intended to carry out an attack using explosives and knives,” according to Austrian intelligence.

The plot was uncovered with the help of U.S. intelligence services.

German police detained Mohammad A. in September in the eastern city of Frankfurt an der Oder, where he was attending school.

The disruption forced Taylor Swift to cancel three Vienna concerts in the summer of 2024. She later told fans that the cancellations left her with a deep sense of fear and guilt, particularly because so many had planned to attend the shows.(MyTVCebu)