The parents of a teenage boy who killed nine children and a security guard in a shooting rampage at a Serbian school last year have been jailed.
in May 2023 attackThe then 13-year-old killed nine children and a security guard at Belgrade’s Vladislav Ribnikar primary school.
The boy’s father, Vladimir Kecmanoviæ, was sentenced on Monday to 14 years and six months in prison, while his mother, Miljana Kecmanoviæ, was sentenced to three years in prison.
Nemanja Marinkovic, an instructor at the Partisan shooting club who taught the boy how to use a gun, was sentenced to one year and three months.
The boy, who has been locked up in a mental hospital since the incident, cannot be tried because he is below the age of criminal responsibility.
However, his parents were charged with ‘serious infringement on general safety’ for failing to properly secure weapons and ammunition. They denied the charges.
Their trial was held behind closed doors.
At the Belgrade High Court on Monday, Vladimir was found guilty of endangering public safety by teaching his son how to shoot and failing to secure a gun. He was also found guilty of neglect of a minor.
Miljana was found guilty of neglect of a minor but acquitted of unlawful possession of weapons and ammunition.
The boy, identified only as KK, was taken to court by special escort last October and left the psychiatric hospital for the first time since the attack on Vladislav Ribnikar primary school.
He was questioned as a witness by the judge, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and lawyers for the families of the dead and injured. He also answered questions from the mother of the murdered child.
Parents of the slain children attended the hearing to try to determine the boy’s motive for the mass shooting.
A lawyer representing the family described the trial as “one of the most harrowing trials I have witnessed in my career.”
Of the nine children killed by KK, eight were girls.
Less than 48 hours later, Serbia was plunged into further grief when eight more people were shot dead by a 21-year-old man in a village outside the capital.
After he testified at his parents’ trial, the family’s attorney told reporters that the boy had lived a normal life before the shooting and that no court proceedings could determine what led to his attack.
