Higher Court in Belgrade Sentences Parents of Boy Who Committed Crime at 'Vladislav Ribnikar' School

(Patria) - The Higher Court in Belgrade today pronounced sentences against Miljana and Vladimir Kecmanović, the parents of the boy accused of killing nine students and a guard at the 'Vladislav Ribnikar' Elementary School on May 3, 2023, and wounding six others.

The boy K.K., who was under 14 at the time of the crime and therefore not criminally responsible, shot his classmates with two of his father's pistols that he took from a safe on May 1, and then two days later placed them in his backpack, went to school, and during the first class killed nine students and the school guard, and wounded five more children and a history teacher.

Miljana Kecmanović was sentenced to two years and 11 months, and Vladimir to 14 years and six months in prison, reports Telegraf.

The sentencing was attended by the families of the victims and those wounded in the crime, who had the status of injured parties in the proceedings.

The Appellate Court in Belgrade overturned most of the earlier verdict against the parents of the killer boy from 'Vladislav Ribnikar' Elementary School, Vladimir and Miljana Kecmanović, citing "significant procedural violations."

In the explanation of the Appellate Court, the first-instance court committed a significant violation of criminal procedure provisions, stating that the reasons for the verdict were unclear and contradictory to the verdict's pronouncement in the convicting part concerning the defendant Vladimir Kecmanović and his wife Miljana Kecmanović.

According to the Appellate Court's decision overturning the verdict in the case of the massacre at 'Vladislav Ribnikar' Elementary School, this means that the Higher Court in Belgrade, in the retrial, should "eliminate the deficiencies pointed out in this decision, properly apply the relevant procedural provisions, and reliably and clearly establish all decisive facts essential for determining the factual situation."

It further adds that the Higher Court in Belgrade should, after all this, "through a careful assessment of each piece of evidence individually and all evidence together in their connection, evaluate the existence or non-existence of each element of the criminal offenses."

The Appellate Court in Belgrade upheld part of the verdict regarding Miljana Kecmanović, and by accepting the appeal of the defense counsel for the defendant Nemanja Marinković, it modified the first-instance verdict only in the part concerning the criminal sanction.

According to media reports in Serbia, Vladimir Kecmanović was brought from prison to the Higher Court in Belgrade.