It was continued in the High Court in Belgrade civil proceedings in case of "Pond farmer" which was initiated by 27 members of injured families for non-material compensation due to mental pain and stress suffered due to the loss of a loved one, writes H1.
Although the hearing of Miljana Kecmanović, the mother of the boy who last year committed a mass murder in an elementary school in Belgrade, was scheduled for today, she did not appear before the court in this proceeding.
Her attorney, Marina Ivelja, said that she will not plead until she finishes presenting her defense in the criminal proceedings against her in this case, in which the public is excluded, unlike this proceeding, which is open to the public.
After that, the hearing and questioning of the witnesses in this proceeding began, namely the employees of the "Vladislav Ribnikar" school.
First, Snežana Knežević, who was the director of the school at the time of the mass murder, was questioned.
And the headmistress initiated proceedings against the killer boy
Her testimony lasted two and a half hours, during which she talked mostly about the procedures at the school, the conditions for changing shifts at the school, how often it happens, and who decides about it.
She also spoke about the disciplinary and inspection procedures that were conducted against her, then the pedagogue psychologist and the school secretary, which were initiated after May 3. She said that only certain administrative failures were determined by those procedures, but that after the tragic event, she as the director, in her official capacity, initiated proceedings against the boy because of what happened.
She explained that she was not at school on the morning when the crime happened, but the assistant principal called her and informed her about what happened, and that she had been learning from the police throughout the day how many victims there were.
"We were not allowed to communicate with anyone." My phone had to be on the table. I saw parents calling me to ask me what was happening with their children, and I already knew then that their children were not alive. "When the exact number of victims was known, I had to go to the 'Vračar' police station with the class teacher and the inspector and tell the parents what happened," said the former school director.
Questions of the parents of the murdered children for the former director
The testimony was followed by dozens of questions from the attorneys of the injured and the defendants, as well as the parents of the murdered children.
The judge did not allow many of the questions as superfluous, stating that the witness had already declared about them or that they were not the subject of the lawsuit.
That is why Snežana Knežević did not answer the question whether she knew that after the media wrote about the "witch doctor" clan, they started talking about the murders among themselves, as well as whether, as the director at the time, she felt moral responsibility for the most serious crime that happened.
When asked by Nina Kobiljski, the mother of the murdered girl Emma, why she did not speak to the public as a school principal and protect the honor of the murdered children, the former principal replied that she did not do so because the questions the media asked her were only about the killer boy.
Dragana Anđelković, the mother of the murdered girl Angelina, asked the witness why she did not resign as director after May 3, but the judge did not allow that question either.
Dragana Anđelković also asked whether the school was responsible for the crime.
To that, the former director replied that "no one could have ever guessed that this would happen." Then she was interrupted and did not finish the thought.
After the former director, it is Dragana Tomić's turn to testify, who was the class teacher of the KK boy who committed the crime.
