(30 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Belgrade, Serbia – 30 December 2024
1. Andjelko Acimovic, center with glasses, father of victim of shooting and others as they enter court
2. Various of Acimovic, wearing dark coat and glasses, inside Higher Court
3. Various of sign inside court reading Courtroom 1 in Serbian Cyrillic
4. Various of students with white flowers who came in front of court to show support for families of slain children
5. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Ninela Radicevic, mother of slain child Ana Bozovic:
++PARTLY OVERLAID WITH SHOT 4++
“I think it’s very important for the whole society that this case reaches a conclusion in the form of criminal liability for the committed mass murder. This is absolutely a priority, not just for me, but I think this should be a priority to the whole society, that this case reaches that kind of conclusion.”
6. Roses laid out by students in front of Higher Court
STORYLINE:
A court in Serbia on Monday convicted the parents of a suspected teenage shooter who gunned down nine pupils and a school guard last year and wounded six more people in primary school in central Belgrade.
The shooting at Vladislav Ribnikar school in central Belgrade on May 3, 2023 shocked the nation which is used to crisis but where school shootings had never happened before.
The shooter, identified as Kosta Kecmanovic, was 13-years-old when he committed the crime and therefore too young to face a trial, according to Serbian law.
His parents were detained soon after the shooting and charged for failing to keep the weapons out of reach of their son.
The Higher Court in Belgrade sentenced Vladimir Kecmanovic, father of the boy, to 14 years and six months in prison for “grave acts against public safety” and for child neglect.
The mother, Miljana Kecmanovic was sentenced to three years in prison for child neglect but was acquitted on charges of illegal possession of weapons.
“This is an important message to society as a form of prevention so something like this never happens again," said Ninela Radicevic, the mother of Ana Bozovic, one of the victims of the mass shooting.
Lawyer Irina Bozovic said the verdict came as no surprise “because public pressure was enormous" and the "expectations were huge.”
While the sentence reading was ongoing, a group of students from Belgrade University gathered in front of the Higher Court in Belgrade in a show of solidarity, and laid white flowers at the building entrance after holding ten minutes of silence in order to commemorate the victims of the mass shooting.
The defendants can appeal the verdict and the sentences.
AP video by Marko Drobnjakovic
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