Vucic: I refused to discuss request for handover of Belgrade school killer to foreign country

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday that, a day after the May 3, 2023, deadly mass shooting in Belgrade's Vladislav Ribnikar primary school, a representative of a foreign service had requested a handover of the teenage killer, Kosta K, but that he had refused to discuss the request.

Asked whether certain foreign services have sought a handover of the boy after the massacre, Vucic told Pink TV the mass shooting had drawn "high attention among foreigners also in terms of the attitude towards the monster murderer."

"I was present, a day after that, a request was made in my office that we hand over Kosta K," Vucic added.

"'Since you will not be able to punish him as he is a younger minor, you cannot even keep him in custody and the child needs to have such and such a life, let us have him,'" Vucic quoted a representative of a foreign service as saying at the time.

"I refused that, I refused to discuss that subject, because I know how much of an injustice that would be to the parents and the families of those killed. A representative of a foreign country and a foreign service directly requested that from us," Vucic said.

He added that, to him, this was not sufficient evidence of foreign services being involved in the tragedy but noted that it had been surrounded by "strange things."

Kosta K killed nine pupils and a security guard and wounded six more people in a shooting spree in the school building.