BELGRADE (Reuters) – The parents of a boy who last year killed 10 people in a primary school in Belgrade in a mass shooting that shocked the country were sentenced on Tuesday to 14.5 years and three years in prison, respectively, for neglect and abuse of a minor.
Vladimir Kecmanovic, the boy’s father, was also sentenced for an aggravated crime against public safety, although his mother Miljana was not.
On May 3, 2023, the boy, identified only as K.K., shot dead eight students and a security guard at his school in Belgrade and wounded five other students and a teacher, before surrendering to police. One girl died from her wounds later.
Under Serbian law, the boy, who was 13 at the time of the shooting, could not be tried due to his age. He is being held in a psychiatric hospital for minors.
An instructor at a shooting range where the boy and his father went for target practice was sentenced to 1.5 years in jail for perjury, the court said.
The Tanjug news agency cited the judge as saying the parents did not provide their son with proper psychological support while the father also failed to secure his weapons in line with the law, instead keeping them where the boy could easily access them.
Both the defendants and the prosecutor have the right to appeal to a higher court if they believe the sentence was too harsh or too lenient.
On Dec. 12 a court in Belgrade sentenced Uros Blazic, a man who killed nine people and wounded 12 others less than a day after the first shooting, to 20 years in prison.
The two rampages shocked the country and triggered weeks of massive anti-government protests that eventually led to a snap election at the end of the year.
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
