
German federal prosecutors said Friday they have charged a Syrian teenager with supporting a foreign terrorist organization after he allegedly helped plan a failed Islamic State attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna last August.
The youth, identified only as Mohammad A., is accused of translating Arabic bomb-making instructions and connecting an Austrian accomplice with an IS contact online. Investigators say the pair aimed to detonate explosives at Swift’s shows in Vienna’s Ernst-Happel Stadium, prompting authorities to scrap all three dates.
Prosecutors allege Mohammad A. adopted IS ideology by April 2024 and actively guided the Austrian suspect between mid-July and August of that year.
Austria has since moved to expand police powers to access encrypted chats, addressing what officials called a critical security gap exposed by the plot.