The parents of a teenage boy who killed nine children and a security guard in a mass school shooting in Serbia last year have been jailed.
The boy's father, Vladimir Kekmanović, was sentenced to 14-and-a-half years in prison on Monday, while his mother, Miljana Kekmanović, was sentenced to three years in prison.
Nemanja Marinkovic, the coach at Partizan Shooting Club who taught the boy how to use a rifle, received a prison sentence of one year and three months.
The boy, who has been detained in a psychiatric facility since the May 2023 attack, cannot be brought to trial because he is under the age of criminal responsibility.
However, his parents were charged with a “dangerous act against public safety” for failing to properly secure weapons and ammunition. They denied these accusations.
Their trial took place behind closed doors.
The Belgrade Supreme Court on Monday found Vladimir guilty of endangering public safety by teaching his son to shoot and failing to secure his gun. He was also convicted of neglect of a minor.
Miliana was found guilty of neglect of a minor, but was acquitted of illegal possession of weapons and ammunition.
The boy, identified only as KK, was brought to court in October by a private escort and left a psychiatric hospital for the first time since the attack on Vladislav Rybnekar Primary School.
He was questioned as a witness by the judge, the prosecutor, the defense, and the lawyers of the families of the dead and wounded. He also answered questions from the mother of the murdered child.
Parents of the slain children attended the hearing in hopes of shedding light on the motive behind the mass shooting of the boy.
A lawyer representing the families described this trial as “one of the most horrific trials I have witnessed in my professional life.”
KK was 13 years old when he took a gun to school and opened fire on other children. Eight of the nine children he killed were girls.
Less than 48 hours later, Serbia was plunged into further grief, when eight more people were shot dead by a 21-year-old man in a village outside the capital.
After his testimony at his parents' trial, the family's lawyer told reporters that the boy was living a normal life before the shooting and no judicial proceedings would be able to determine what led to his attack.
