The High Court in Belgrade sentenced the parents of Kosta Kecmanović, the boy who killed ten and injured six people at the Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school in Belgrade on May 3, 2023, informs Euronews.rs.
Vladimir Kecmanović was sentenced to 14 years and six months in prison for the crimes of neglect and abuse of a minor and a serious crime against public safety, while Miljana Kecsmanović was sentenced to two years and 11 months in prison for the crime of neglect and abuse of a minor.
This is the second first-instance verdict, which the prosecution and the defense have the right to appeal to the Court of Appeal in Belgrade.
In his closing remarks, the chief public prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, Nenad Stefanović, suggested that the court sentence Kecmanović to the maximum prison terms. He requested a single prison sentence of 14 years and 11 months for Vladimir Kecmanovic and a three-year prison sentence for Miljana Kecmanovic.
On the other hand, the defense requested acquittals, claiming that the allegations in the indictment were not proven. The trial was repeated because the Court of Appeal in Belgrade overturned the first-instance verdict that sentenced Kecmanovic to several years in prison and ordered a retrial.
In a crime unlike any in recent Serbian history, Kecmanovic, then 13, killed eight girls, a boy and a school security guard with his father’s gun during the first class at school, wounding five other students and a history teacher.
At the time of the crime, he was under 14 years old and not criminally responsible under the law, and after his arrest he was placed in a special psychiatric facility where he remains under supervision.
In his closing words, Chief Prosecutor Nenad Stefanović said that this is precisely why the law prescribed the special responsibility of parents, who have not only a legal but also a moral obligation to raise and guide their child.
“I hate you, son” – chilling messages revealed at the trial of Kosta Kecmanovic’s parents
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