Belgrade court awards damages to boy wounded by school shooter

BELGRADE - The Higher Court in Belgrade has ordered Vladimir and Miljana Kecmanovic - the parents of the underage boy who shot dead nine pupils and a security guard and wounded six more people in a May 3, 2023 shooting spree at the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade - the teenage killer himself and the school to jointly pay a total of 3.1 mln dinars (approx. 26,500 euros) in immaterial damages to one of the wounded children, a boy identified as J D, a source in the court confirmed to Tanjug on Friday.

The ruling may be appealed before the Appeals Court in Belgrade.

Three out of five lawsuits filed by the families of those killed or wounded have now been resolved.

Under a ruling in a lawsuit filed by 27 members of the slain victims' families, the Kecmanovics and the school are to pay them around 350 mln dinars (approx 3 mln euros) in damages.

The Kecmanovics have also been ordered to pay nearly 7 mln dinars (approx. 60,000 euros) to a history teacher who was seriously wounded in the shooting.

Under a first-instance ruling, Vladimir Kecmanovic has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for a serious crime against general safety as well as to three years in prison for neglect and abuse of a minor, and received a unified sentence of 14.5 years of imprisonment.

Miljana Kemanovic has been sentenced to three years in prison for child neglect and abuse.

Shooting sports instructor Nemanja Marinkovic has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for the criminal offence of false testimony.

The teenage killer, who was under 14 years of age at the time he committed the crime and thus cannot be held criminally responsible, used two of his father's pistols in the shooting spree.