Serbian mass shooter sentenced to 20 years in prison

A man who killed nine people and wounded 12 in one of the two mass shootings in Serbia last year that shocked the country and triggered the biggest protests in years was found guilty and sentenced on Thursday to 20 years in prison.

Uros Blazic, who was 20 when he committed the crime in May 2023, admitted shooting at numerous people in three different locations near the town of Mladenovac.

That shooting took place less than 24 hours after a teenager shot dead nine pupils and a guard in a Belgrade elementary school in the first school mass shooting in the Balkan country.

Both rampages shocked Serbia and triggered anti-government protests that eventually led to a snap election at the end of the year.

A court in the city of Smederevo found Blazic guilty and sentenced him to 20 years in prison for murder and illegal weapons possession among other things, RTS state TV reported.

The verdict and the sentence are not final and Blazic has the right to appeal.

Sasa Panic, father of two of the people killed by Blazic - Kristina, 18, and Milan, 22 - told RTS he was not happy with the outcome.

"There is no appropriate punishment (for what he did). Even death penalty would be too mild," Panic told RTS.

The maximum sentence in Serbia is 40 years but because Blazic was 20 when he committed the crime, the maximum punishment he could receive was 20 years, according to Serbian law.