Taylor Swift Vienna concert attacker jail sentence

Photo Credit: Eva Rinaldi / CC by 2.0

A 16-year-old was given an 18-month suspended sentence, avoiding jail following a foiled attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna last year.

Mohamed A, the teen who helped plan an ultimately unsuccessful attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna last year, has avoided prison. The 16-year-old was given an 18-month suspended sentence under juvenile criminal law in Berlin on Tuesday (August 26).

According to prosecutors, the Syrian teen was radicalized by Islamic State propaganda online, and was 14 when he helped translate bomb-making instructions from Arabic to aid a would-be attacker.

As a result, Swift’s three sold-out shows at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium were called off by show organizers after authorities uncovered the plot.

The court said the teen made a full confession. Meanwhile, three other suspects—all of whom are or were teens at the time of the planned attack—have also been detained by Austrian authorities. The main suspect, a 20-year-old Austrian identified as Beran A, is still being investigated.

He was arrested following a tip from the CIA, which said those involved had hoped to kill numerous concertgoers. Further, investigators believe Beran A had planned to carry out another attack in Dubai months earlier. According to investigators, it was part of a coordinated effort to enact three simultaneous attacks, but ended up falling through.

At the time, Taylor Swift said that although she was devastated to cancel her sold-out Vienna tour dates, she was thankful to be able to shake it off. “I was also so grateful to the authorities because, thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” said the superstar.

She stressed that the safety of her fans was her top concern while continuing her massive Eras tour. “My priority was finishing our European tour safely, and it is with great relief that I can say we did that.”