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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Government adopts measures proposed after crime in Mladenovac

Belgrade, 5 May 2023

The government of the Republic of Serbia began today's session with a minute of silence for all victims of the mass murder that took place in Mladenovac.

Members of the government adopted the measures announced today by President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic, which were proposed after the crime in Mladenovac.

The Ministry of the Interior will urgently prepare amendments to the Law on Arms and Ammunition, which would tighten the conditions for keeping and carrying short firearms, and those who do not meet the strict conditions will have to sell the firearms. This measure is adopted in order to reduce the number of short firearms in the possession of legal and natural persons by 20%.

Amendments to the Law on Arms and Ammunition will provide for mandatory checks of persons who are allowed to possess weapons (including hunting weapons), which would include medical, psychiatric and psychological examinations, as well as a mandatory test for psychoactive substances. These checks will be carried out every six months and every year.

The Ministry of the Interior will also consider the need to tighten the conditions for possessing hunting weapons.

The Ministry of the Interior, in addition to the moratorium measure on the issuance of licenses for the possession and carrying of short firearms, adopted on 4 May 2023, will take all measures within its competence to ensure a moratorium on the issuance of permits for the possession and carrying of hunting weapons for two years.

The Ministry of the Interior will issue a public invitation to persons who illegally possess weapons and explosive devices to surrender them within a month without consequences.

The Ministry of Justice, within the framework of the existing Working Group for the amendment of the Criminal Code, will prepare amendments to the law, which would tighten the penalties for the criminal offense of “unauthorized production, possession, carrying and trafficking of weapons and explosive substances” from Article 348.

The prepared changes will refer to the tightening of penalties for the following criminal acts:

anyone who makes, modifies, sells, acquires, exchanges or keeps firearms for which a license can be obtained shall be punished by imprisonment from 1 to 8 years
anyone who makes, modifies, sells, acquires, exchanges or keeps firearms for which a permit cannot be obtained without authorization shall be punished by imprisonment from 2 to 12 years
anyone who makes, remanufactures, sells, procures, exchanges or keeps large quantities of weapons or weapons of great destructive power without authorization shall be punished by a prison sentence of 5 to 15 years
a person who carries a weapon without authorization, the acquisition and possession of which does not have the permission of the competent authority, shall be punished by a prison sentence of 5 to 15 years
a person who carries a weapon without authorisation, the acquisition and possession of which has the permission of the competent authority, shall be punished with a prison sentence of 1 to 8 years.

In accordance with the tightening of penalties for the criminal offense from Article 348 of the Criminal Code, the penalties for other similar crimes, such as Article 347 of the Criminal Code "making and acquiring weapons and means intended for the commission of a criminal offence", will be increased accordingly.

Within a month, the Ministry of Education will prepare amendments to regulations that would tighten sanctions against students who violate the prescribed ban on bringing in alcohol, drugs, psychoactive substances, weapons, pyrotechnic objects or other tools that can injure or endanger another person. Sanctions will be tightened so that the deadlines will be shortened, the disciplinary procedure will be more effective, and it will provide for the mandatory exclusion of students from school.

Today, as well as Saturday, 6 May, and Sunday, 7 May, have been declared days of mourning due to the tragic event in Mladenovac.

The government of the Republic of Serbia sends its sincere condolences to all the families killed in this terrible crime and hopes that all the wounded will recover successfully.