Prosecutor seeks maximum sentences for Ribnikar parents

Closing arguments have been delivered at the retrial of the parents of the boy who carried out the massacre at the Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school on May 3, 2023. The chief prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office asked for the maximum sentences for both defendants: a combined 14 years and 11 months in prison for the father and three years for the mother. The Higher Court in Belgrade has set the verdict for June 18.

In his closing, the prosecutor said this case offers no mitigating circumstances. In his view, it was the parents’ negligence that allowed the boy to reach a firearm kept in the family safe, leaving 10 people dead and several others wounded. The case against the mother, the court heard, was further aggravated by what the prosecutor described as a lack of empathy toward the victims.

What exactly is the prosecution asking for in the retrial?

The closing arguments came in a case that is being tried for the second time. The first-instance conviction of the parents was overturned in November 2025 and a new trial was ordered, so the panel had to take the evidence again and hear both sides afresh.

The prosecution maintains that the parents’ liability stems from their failure to secure the firearm and ammunition, which were within reach of their underage son. The father faces the more serious counts tied to weapons safety and the resulting deaths, while the mother is charged with a lighter but connected set of failings. That is why the requested sentences differ so sharply: nearly 15 years for the father against three for the mother.

Both defendants delivered their own closing statements. They argue that they could not have foreseen their child’s actions and that the burden of guilt cannot fall entirely on them.

How did the defense respond to the prosecutor’s request?

In its closing, the defense asked the court to acquit both parents. The lawyers argue that the indictment rests on assumptions and that the evidence presented is not enough to establish, beyond reasonable doubt, a direct causal link between the parents’ conduct and the tragedy at the school.

At its core, the defense raises the question of where parental responsibility ends and an individual’s unforeseeable act begins. The lawyers note that the boy was below the age of criminal responsibility at the time, and that it is now the parents who sit in the dock for consequences they say they could not have prevented.

The Ribnikar case remains one of the gravest in recent Serbian court practice, and the first in which responsibility for a mass killing at a school is being sought from the parents of the child who pulled the trigger. The outcome of the retrial will set an important precedent on the limits of that responsibility.

Where, in your view, does a parent’s responsibility end for an act committed by their child?