Belgrade, Serbia. A father and mother. Convicted. Not for pulling the trigger. For neglect. For the bullets their son used.
This is the retrial verdict. A landmark, some say. The parents of the 13-year-old who killed nine at a Belgrade school last May have been sentenced to prison. The father: six years. The mother: three. The charge: criminal neglect of a minor. Failure to secure a firearm.
The boy used his father’s gun. A registered weapon. Kept in a safe, the father had claimed. But the court heard that the boy knew the combination. That the parents had not taken proper care. That they failed to supervise.
Inside the courtroom, the family of the victims watched. Stony-faced. The verdict read out. The father, a doctor, showed no emotion. The mother broke down.
This case has gripped Serbia. A nation still raw from the tragedy. The school shooting in May 2023 was the deadliest in Serbian history. It triggered a wave of protests. Calls for gun control. A crackdown on unregistered weapons.
But this verdict goes further. It is about parental responsibility. About the power of the state to hold parents accountable for their children’s actions. Or, in this case, their inaction.
Lawyers on both sides plan to appeal. The prosecution wanted harsher terms. The defence says the parents are scapegoats. They argue that the system failed too. That the boy had been bullied, isolated. That signs were missed.
Yet the court’s message is clear. Not just to parents in Serbia. But across the region. If your child commits a crime with your gun, you may face justice.
The political fallout is immediate. The ruling populist party has seized on the verdict. A sign of a government taking action, they say. But critics whisper of a distraction. Of other failures in child protection. Of a society still armed to the teeth.
Tomorrow, the appeals will begin. The legal process grinds on. But today, two parents are in prison. Their son is in a mental institution. Nine children are dead. And Serbia must live with the question: is this justice or retribution?
I’ll be following this story. Watching the appeals. The political manoeuvring. The shifting public mood.
For now, the gavel has fallen. The verdict is in.
