Ribnikar victims families react to the verdict
Parents of the slain children spoke out right after the first-instance verdict. They say even a life sentence would not be enough, and that no one has yet been held to final account for the deaths of nine children and a guard.
- The families reacted immediately after the first-instance verdict was handed down at the Higher Court on June 18, 2026.
- Andjelko Acimovic, father of one of the murdered girls, says justice has been only partly served and that even a life sentence would be a small measure.
- Ninela Radicevic, mother of one of the murdered girls, says they expected such a verdict and are not satisfied.
- The families stress that no one has yet been held to final account for the deaths of nine children and the school guard.
After proceedings that have lasted more than three years, the families of the children killed at the Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School received the first-instance verdict with mixed feelings. Their reactions came immediately after the decision was read out at the Higher Court in Belgrade on June 18, 2026.
The parents spoke quietly and with restraint. None of them said they were satisfied. They spoke of children who will not return and of the years they had spent waiting for the court to have its say.
Andjelko Acimovic, father of one of the murdered girls, said that justice had been only partly served. He added that even a life sentence would be a small measure for what had happened. His words echoed a thought that other families voiced that day: no sentence can be proportionate to the loss of a child.
Ninela Radicevic, mother of one of the murdered girls, said the families had expected such a verdict. She added that this did not make them satisfied. In her words, the outcome surprised no one who had followed the proceedings from the start.
What are the families asking for after the verdict?
The families stress that, despite the decision handed down, no one has yet been held to final account for the deaths of nine children and the school guard. In legal terms, guilt will be established only once the verdict becomes final, after any appeals and a ruling by a higher court.
For the families, that distinction is crucial. A first-instance verdict is a step in the process, not its end. They emphasise that the question of responsibility for the event itself, for the failures that preceded it and for the protection of children in schools, remains open.
Over proceedings that have lasted more than three years, the families say they have endured further trauma. Every hearing meant returning to May 3, 2023. Every testimony reopened wounds that have not closed. The parents have said repeatedly that the court calendar has dictated the rhythm of their lives.
Why does the verdict bring no peace?
Justice in the legal sense and justice in the human sense rarely coincide. That thought ran through the families statements after the verdict. The court decides on a sentence. The families decide how to go on living without their children.
Over these years the parents have carried a double burden. On one side, a loss that is permanent. On the other, the public nature of the proceedings, which has laid every detail of their tragedy before the whole of society. Many of them avoided cameras and statements, asking only that the process be concluded with dignity.
The nine children and the school guard, Dragan, are not just numbers in an indictment. Behind each name stands a family that has, as they say, learned to live with an absence. For them the verdict does not mean closure, but a passage into a new phase of waiting, this time for the ruling to become final.
The question the families raise is not aimed only at the court. It concerns society as a whole: what have we, as a community, learned in the three years since the children of Ribnikar lost their lives, and have we done enough to ensure that nothing like it ever happens again?
