Parents of teenage school killer again sentenced to years in prison after retrial

BELGRADE - After a retrial, the Higher Court in Belgrade on Thursday handed prison sentences to the parents a teenage boy who killed nine pupils and a security staff member and wounded six more people in a shooting spree in his primary school in central Belgrade on May 3, 2023.

His father Vladimir Kecmanovic was sentenced to 14 years and six months in prison for the crime of a serious offence against general safety as well as neglect and abuse of a minor.

The boy's mother Miljana Kecmanovic was sentenced to two years and 11 months in prison for child neglect and abuse.

The decision is a second first-instance ruling and may be appealed by both the defence and the prosecutors.

In his closing argument, Chief Prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade Nenad Stefanovic proposed maximum prison terms - a unified sentence of 14 years and 11 months in prison for Vladimir Kecmanovic and three years in prison for Miljana Kecmanovic.

The defence requested that the two be acquitted, arguing that the allegations from their indictment had not been proven.

Previously, the Appeals Court in Belgrade threw out the initial first-instance ruling and ordered a retrial.

Under the first ruling, Vladimir Kecmanovic was sentenced for the same criminal offences to 14.5 years in prison, while Miljana Kecmanovic was handed a three-year prison sentence.

The teenage killer, identified as K K, was under 14 years of age at the time he committed the crime and thus cannot be held criminally responsible

He used two of his father's pistols in the shooting spree.