A German court on Tuesday convicted a 16-year-old boy of supporting a foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift concerts in Austria last year.
The Syrian national, whom prosecutors have identified only as Mohammad A. in line with German privacy rules, was convicted of preparing a serious act of violence and supporting a terrorist act of violence abroad. The Berlin court gave him a suspended 18-month sentence.
Austrian officials said said he had planned to attack outside the stadium with knives or explosives. CIA Deputy Director David Cohen said last year that the suspects wanted to kill "tens of thousands" of Swift's fans.
The defendant made a "comprehensive confession" at his trial, which was held behind closed doors because of his age, according to the court. The verdict can be appealed.
Judges found that the defendant, then aged 14, supported the ideology of the Islamic State group at the time and was in contact via social media with a young man in neighboring Austria who planned to attack a Swift concert in Vienna.
The court said they found that, among other things, the defendant sent his acquaintance a video with bomb-building instructions and organized contact with an IS member.
Austrian authorities on Aug. 7, 2024, arrested two suspects just before three Swift concerts in Vienna were canceled. Concert organizers in Austria said they had expected up to 65,000 fans inside the stadium at each concert and as many as 30,000 onlookers outside, where authorities said the suspects planned to strike.
Austrian authorities took a third suspect into custody a day later and investigators said they found bomb-making materials at one of the suspects' homes.
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