Teen Girl Questioned Over Stari Grad Stabbing
Girl (15) was questioned at Belgrade's Higher Public Prosecutor's Office with her parents present, on suspicion of violent behavior. A broken knife was found in the Stari Grad municipality.
A fifteen year old girl was questioned at the Belgrade Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office on suspicion that she was behind a stabbing in Stari Grad that left an eighteen year old girl injured. Her parents were present during the questioning. She is being charged with the criminal offense of violent behavior.
The attack happened on August 9, around 1:17 a.m., on Krsmanovica Brothers Street. The injured party, identified as M. A. (18), suffered a stab wound. An ambulance crew responded at the scene and took her to the Emergency Center, where she remained for treatment.
Police located and detained the suspect, who was taken to the prosecutor’s office immediately after being brought in. A second minor has also been identified, suspected of having been with the fifteen year old at the time of the attack. She will be questioned separately at a later date, also with her parents present. The Center for Social Welfare has been notified of the case.
Knife Found Broken
A knife suspected of being used in the attack was found within the Stari Grad municipality. It was found broken. According to information from the investigation, it is so far the only object linked to the attack, and the exact location where it was discarded has not been disclosed.
The motive has not been disclosed. It is also unknown whether the suspect and the injured girl knew each other beforehand. The legal classification at this stage is not final: the prosecutor’s office will issue its final assessment once it collects the medical report on the injury and statements from everyone present.
Why Isn’t the Teen Girl Tried as an Adult?
Criminal responsibility in Serbia begins at age 14. A person between 14 and 16 is classified as a younger minor, and only educational measures can be imposed on her, never a juvenile prison sentence and never a fine.
The range of available measures is broad:
- warning and guidance measures, meaning a judicial reprimand and special obligations
- measures of intensified supervision, carried out by parents, adoptive parents or guardianship authorities
- institutional measures, meaning referral to an educational institution or a correctional facility
The proceedings are led by a juvenile judge, the public is excluded, and information that would reveal the identity of a minor may not be published. This is why the Center for Social Welfare is not a peripheral party in cases like this but a participant in the proceedings: its findings on family circumstances and prior behavior become part of the case file and influence which measure is ultimately imposed.
The same applies to the second girl, should it be established that she took part. The mere fact that someone was present at the scene does not amount to complicity, that is determined during the proceedings.
Same Night: 114 Emergency Calls
Belgrade’s Emergency Medical Service handled 114 calls that night, of which 28 were interventions at public locations. Four people were lightly injured in three traffic accidents. A large share of the interventions involved people under the influence of alcohol, the service told Tanjug, while the most frequent callers for help were chronic patients and psychiatric patients.
Krsmanovica Brothers Street is a short connecting road in Savamali, in a strip of bars and clubs that operate until morning. In that area, nighttime traffic is reduced mostly to pedestrians and taxis, and incidents typically occur as venues are closing, in the same hours when the Emergency Medical Service is under the heaviest load. The time of the attack, just after one in the morning, falls squarely within that window.
What sets this case apart from the usual overnight crime reports out of central Belgrade is the age of the suspect. A nighttime stabbing during a night out usually ends with the arrest of an adult and pretrial detention. Here there is no detention in that form, no name will be released and there will be no public trial. Instead of an arrest and an indictment, the process begins with questioning in the presence of parents and a report from the guardianship authority, and the outcome depends on an assessment of which measure can actually change the behavior.
The injured eighteen year old remains under treatment. Her condition following admission to the Emergency Center has not been disclosed.
