FILE PHOTO: A police vehicle patrols as fans of the singer Taylor Swift gather following the cancellation of three Taylor Swift concerts at Happel stadium after the government confirmed a planned attack at the venue, in Vienna, Austria August 8, 2024. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl/File Photo
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany has charged a Syrian juvenile with supporting a foreign terrorist organization for helping to plan a foiled attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna last year, the prosecutor general said in a statement on Friday.
Identified as Mohammad A, the suspect helped the would-be attacker by translating Arabic bomb-building instructions and putting him in contact with a member of the Islamic State militia online, according to the charges against him.
Police made multiple arrests over a suspected plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in the Austrian capital's Ernst Happel Stadium, prompting the cancellation of all three of her shows there in August last year.
"Mohammad A has adhered to the ideology of the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) since April 2024 at the latest," the statement said.
"Between mid-July and August 2024, he was in contact with a young Austrian who was planning a bomb attack on a concert by singer Taylor Swift in Vienna."
Austria's coalition government earlier this month agreed on a plan to enable police to monitor suspects' secure messaging in order to thwart militant attacks, ending what security officials have said is a rare and dangerous blind spot for a European Union country.
(Writing by Rachel More and Matthias WilliamsEditing by Ludwig Burger and Miranda Murray)
