VIENNA (Reuters) – A plot to hold out an assault at a Taylor Swift live performance in Vienna was foiled on Sunday, with the principle suspect’s lawyer making an attempt to downplay the seriousness of the plan, saying her shopper was simply “taking part in with concepts”.
Three of Swift’s deliberate live shows this week had been canceled as Austrian authorities found a plot allegedly masterminded by a 19-year-old to hold out an ISIS-inspired suicide assault at a soccer stadium the place tens of 1000’s of followers had been planning Watch the present there.
Austrian investigators say the younger man just lately swore to affix the Islamic State and made a full confession after police raided his residence and seized chemical compounds, machetes and different units the plotters deliberate to make use of within the bomb assaults. .
Lawyer Ina-Christin Stiglitz advised Reuters the younger man had solely turn out to be concerned with ISIS prior to now month.
“It intrigued him,” she stated, suggesting her shopper did not actually intend to hold out a severe assault.
“It’s simply taking part in with concepts,” she stated. “He stated the bomb wasn’t ok and would not work.”
She added that he researched find out how to make bombs on-line.
Austrian police detained three different youngsters as a part of the investigation, together with a 17-year-old whom Stiglitz stated her shopper known as her “greatest buddy and neighbor.”
Neighbors of the 19-year-old man within the small city of Ternitz expressed shock at his arrest, describing him as reserved however pleasant. One of many few indicators that he could be radicalized, they stated, was his current development of a protracted beard.
In response to questions on why he modified his look, his lawyer stated: “He wished to be cool.”
Chancellor Karl Nehammer stated earlier that Austria’s intelligence companies ought to have better powers to watch communications on messaging apps to cease extremists.
