21-year-old Beran Aliyi has pleaded guilty to plotting a large-scale Islamist terrorist attack targeting a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, Austria, in 2024. The suspect, widely described by Western mainstream media as an ‘Austrian man’, is in fact an Albanian North Macedonian Muslim who also holds Austrian citizenship.
Aliyi pleaded guilty on 28 April before a court in Wiener Neustadt, admitting that he had planned an attack on Taylor Swift’s 2024 Eras Tour concerts at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium. Prosecutors described the plot as an ‘attempt to kill tens of thousands of people’. The attack was intended to take place during the American singer’s three sold-out concerts scheduled for 8–10 August 2024, events expected to attract roughly 195,000 attendees.
Austrian authorities ultimately cancelled all three concerts after intelligence services uncovered the plot shortly before the first performance.
Investigators say the suspect had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and had consumed jihadist propaganda and bomb-making tutorials online. Authorities reportedly discovered chemicals for producing TATP explosives—the same substance used in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing—alongside knives, counterfeit currency, and what prosecutors described as ‘plans for a mass-casualty attack’.
Albanian Muslim who plotted to kill 'tens of thousands' at Taylor Swift concert in Austria, pleads guilty pic.twitter.com/bzZTKZ04ta
— Daily Romania (@daily_romania) April 29, 2026
According to prosecutors, the suspect intended to combine explosives, knives, and potentially vehicle attacks against crowds gathered around the stadium. US intelligence reportedly warned Austrian authorities after the suspect posted an oath of allegiance to Islamic State-linked Telegram channels. The CIA later stated publicly that the plot aimed to kill ‘a huge number, tens of thousands of people’, including American citizens attending the concerts.
The investigation also revealed that Aliyi and two associates allegedly planned separate Islamist attacks in Dubai, Istanbul, and Mecca during Ramadan in early 2024. One accomplice allegedly carried out a stabbing attack near Mecca’s Grand Mosque and remains detained in Saudi Arabia.
A second defendant, Slovak–Turkish dual citizen Arda K, admitted travelling to Istanbul with the intention of carrying out an attack there, although both defendants deny having supported the attacker in Mecca.
During the trial, it was also revealed that Aliyi idolized Kujtim Fejzulai, another ethnically Albanian Austrian North Macedonian dual citizen who killed four people in the 2020 Islamist terror attack in Vienna. ‘I thought he was really cool,’ Aliyi told the court, adding that ‘it was cool that this guy from Vienna got this global attention, that he became famous.’
Beran Aliyi faces between 10 and 20 years in prison if convicted. The trial is expected to continue through May 2026.
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