A Belgrade court has jailed the parents of a 13-year-old boy after he shot dead nine students and a security guard at an elementary school in Serbia’s capital last year, Report informs via The Guardian.
The killings, on 3 May 2023, deeply shocked the Balkan state, where mass shootings have been rare despite high levels of gun ownership.
The trial was conducted solely against the teenager’s parents, Vladimir and Miljana Kecmanovic, as their son could not be criminally prosecuted due to his age.
Vladimir Kecmanovic was sentenced on Monday to 14 years and six months while Miljana Kecmanovic was jailed for three years, the Belgrade higher court said.
Prosecutors had argued the father had trained his son to shoot, had not properly secured his weapons and ammunition, and had allowed the boy to hide a handgun and 92 bullets in his backpack that he later used in the shooting.
“The accused, Vladimir Kecmanovic, was found guilty of committing the criminal offenses of a grave offense against public safety and neglect and abuse of a minor. The accused, Miljana Kecmanovic, was found guilty of neglect and abuse of a minor,” the court said.
Miljana Kecmanovic was acquitted on charges of the unauthorized production, possession, carrying or trafficking of weapons.
The court also sentenced the instructor at the shooting range where, according to the indictment, Vladimir Kecmanovic took his son for target practice, to one year and three months in prison.
Both the prosecution and the defense have said they will appeal against the sentences.
The chief public prosecutor, Nenad Stefanović, announced an appeal for harsher sentences for the father and the shooting instructor, as well as against the dismissal of part of the indictment against the mother.
Lawyers for the parents and the shooting instructor also said they would appeal.