Terror Network Around Thwarted Swift Attacker: Man Arrested in Vienna
In connection with a terror network that is believed to have formed around the thwarted attacker at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna since late spring 2023, another arrest has been made.
This was confirmed by the spokeswoman for the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office, Nina Bussek, on Thursday evening to the APA. “Puls24” was the first to report on the arrest.
Slovak with Residence in Vienna Arrested
The arrested 20-year-old – a native Slovak with residence in Vienna-Favoriten – is suspected of being part of an IS terror cell along with Beran A. (20) and Hasan E. (20). The three alleged supporters of the radical Islamic terror militia “Islamic State” (IS) are said to have had close contact since May 2023 and planned attacks in Mecca, Dubai, and Istanbul from February 2024, which were to be carried out simultaneously.
The Slovak is accused of planning attacks in Istanbul. He flew to Istanbul on March 4, 2024, where Hasan E. had already gone. The two had known each other since 2020. They attended the same school and shared not only an interest in martial arts but also the same religious beliefs. They prayed together and visited the same mosques. In Istanbul, the two went out to eat, visited the sights, and bought perfumes. While Hasan E. traveled on to Mecca on March 7, his friend returned to Austria without an attack taking place in Istanbul.
Swift Concert in Vienna Canceled
Beran A. – a suspected IS supporter from the Neunkirchen district – only joined the two in 2023. He is considered the main suspect in connection with the thwarted attack plans on a Taylor Swift performance on August 9, 2024. This was canceled shortly before, after the Directorate of State Protection and Intelligence Service (DSN) learned of a terrorist threat from a foreign partner service and tracked down and arrested the young Lower Austrian.
During further investigations, it emerged that Beran A. had likely been pursuing terrorist intentions for some time. According to the investigations, a coordinated bloody approach was planned with his acquaintances also connected to IS, Hasan E., who last lived in the Bruck an der Leitha district, and the now arrested individual. Specifically, they intended to carry out an attack simultaneously in three different locations abroad on March 11, 2024 – at the beginning of the fasting month of Ramadan. Beran A. flew to Dubai and, according to the available investigation results, planned to stab a soldier in front of a mosque and then “shoot at people in the vicinity” with his revolver, as he later confessed. However, he lost his nerve. He decided “at the last moment” against an attack because he feared “dying in a hail of police bullets and having to suffer beforehand,” he confessed after his arrest in August.
Stabbed in the Neck
Hasan E. meanwhile flew to Mecca and carried out his terror plans there. He obtained a knife and stabbed a security officer in the neck in front of the Al-Haram Mosque – the largest mosque in the world, in its courtyard is the Kaaba, the central sanctuary of Islam. When other security forces tried to overpower him, he stabbed and slashed at them with the knife, injuring four more people.
In a few weeks, the 20-year-old is to be tried in Saudi Arabia, as recently reported by the “Kurier”. The death penalty is applied in Saudi Arabia. The number of executions has risen from 172 in 2023 to 345 in the previous year.
“Third Man” Continued Living in Vienna
The “third man” continued living in Vienna until his recent arrest. At the latest, with the evaluation of the phones and extracted chats seized from Beran A., the law enforcement authorities likely classified the Slovak as a terror suspect. It is safe to assume that he has been under state protection surveillance and closely monitored since last autumn, and there were tactical reasons for the arrest only happening now. As the prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Bussek explained to the APA, the native Slovak is not yet in the Josefstadt prison. Interrogations regarding the suspicion of terrorist association (§ 278 b StGB) are ongoing, said Bussek.
Involvement of the Slovak in the terror plans against the Swift concert has reportedly not been proven so far. Regarding his allegedly murderous plan in Istanbul, he is incriminated, among other things, by a video that Beran A. posted online on February 16, 2024, which was intended for his family after his planned suicide attack in Dubai. In it, he explained the motives of all three young men to simultaneously carry out three acts of terror in the Arab region, thus setting off a series of attacks that were supposed to cost the lives of police officers or soldiers. In an Arab country, “normally Sharia should prevail,” but “the Sharia laws” are “exchanged for money,” Beran A. complained in the video. This would “spit on Islam.”
The series of attacks was planned by him and his two accomplices for the IS “and for God, so that the IS can come back.” The police officers in Dubai are “the worst. They talk about Islam and Sharia, but they legalize alcohol. (…) They follow Sharia, but when they see someone drinking alcohol, they do nothing. That is not Sharia. That is completely Kufar (infidels, ed.),” reasoned Beran A. in the video.
