The parents of a suspected teenage school shooter were to stand trial in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, from yesterday, after their son’s killing spree left 10 dead, including nine classmates.
The incident in May last year — along with a second shooting that occurred a day later — rocked the Balkan nation, setting off major demonstrations against the government that coalesced into an opposition coalition that stood in elections last month.
The trial comes after the Belgrade Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office charged the suspected shooter’s father in October last year for a “serious act against general safety.”
Photo: AFP
Prosecutors said that the father had trained his son to use firearms, practicing shooting and handling arms. The father also stands accused of not properly securing his weapons and ammunition, allowing the suspect to hide a handgun and 92 bullets in his backpack that he later used during the shooting.
The accused’s mother was charged with the illegal possession of ammunition.
Prosecutors have also charged the head of a Serbian shooting club and an instructor for providing false testimony.
The suspected shooter was just 13 years old at the time of the attack, making him not criminally liable under Serbian law.
Following the shootings, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic vowed to “disarm” the nation with an ambitious plan that would crack down on legal and illicit firearms in the nation. Despite the pledge, the shootings sparked massive anti-government protests across Serbian cities, as tens of thousands of demonstrators called for the resignation of top officials and the curtailing of violence in the media.
Vucic largely dismissed the protests as a “political” stunt and peddled conspiracy theories about foreign powers allegedly orchestrating the rallies.
Serbia has the highest level of gun ownership in Europe with more than 39 firearms for every 100 civilians, according to the Small Arms Survey project.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS