Prosecutor's office appeals Kecmanovics trial ruling, calls for maximum sentences

BELGRADE - The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade has appealed a ruling handed down by the Higher Court in Belgrade to the parents of a teenage boy who killed nine pupils and a security staff member and wounded six other people in a shooting spree in his primary school in central Belgrade on May 3, 2023, and said their prison sentences had been measured incorrectly.

In a June 18 first-instance ruling, the boy's 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, while his mother Miljana Kecmanovic was sentenced to two years and 11 months in prison for child neglect and abuse.

The Prosecutor's Office requested maximum sentences for the committed offences under the Criminal Code.

There are no mitigating circumstances for the accused as their underage son's killing spree has caused a tremendous tragedy, the Prosecutor's Office said in a statement, noting that nothing could make up for the loss of the injured parties.

In the appeal, the Prosecutor's Office proposed that the Appeals Court in Belgrade reverse the first-instance ruling by sentencing Vladimir Kecmanovic to a unified prison term of 14 years and 11 months and Miljana Kecmanovic to three years in prison.

It noted that it believed the sentences handed down in the ruling were measured incorrectly and would not fully serve the purpose of criminal sentencing and punishment.

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.