Germany charges Syrian juvenile over Taylor Swift concert plot

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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)