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New developments have occurred in Belgrade regarding the project of Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
According to the prosecutor's announcement, in addition to the Minister of Culture Nikola Sellakovic, the accused are also the Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Slavica Jelaca, the acting director of the Republican Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Goran Vasic, and the acting director of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade, Aleksandar Ivanovic.
The indictment relates to irregularities and legal violations during the removal of the cultural property status for the "General Headquarters" buildings.
The suspects are accused of committing two criminal offenses: abuse of official duty under Article 359, paragraph 1, and falsification of an official document under Article 357, paragraph 2, in conjunction with paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code, the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime announced.
Minister of Culture, Nikola Selakovic, was questioned on December 4 at the Organized Crime Prosecution Office as a suspect in the "General Staff" case.
On the site of the General Staff complex, destroyed during NATO bombing in 1999, a luxury complex is planned to be built by the investment company "Affinity Partners" of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić warned on December 11 that, if indictments are filed in the General Staff case, he will pardon all those who "allegedly participated in the abuses."
On November 7, the Serbian Parliament passed a special law that stripped the General Staff of its cultural property status, paving the way for the construction of Donald Trump's son-in-law's luxury complex.
The approval of the special law accelerating Kushner's project comes at a time when Aleksandar Vucic's government is trying to strengthen relations with the Donald Trump administration, after Washington imposed sanctions on the state oil company NIS, due to its majority stake owned by Russia's Gazprom and Gazprom Neft.
The sanctions came into effect last month, cutting off crude oil supplies to NIS refineries, which are expected to run out of reserves by the end of this month.
Meanwhile, after a year of protests, the government in Belgrade has threatened to shut down most of the country's remaining independent media. Information Minister Boris Bratina threatened the private channel N1, the Nova television network, and Radio Free Europe, the US state-owned pro-democracy outlet that the Trump administration is trying to shut down.
Bratina declared that these media outlets “should not exist in broadcast on the territory of the state,” drawing a harsh response from the European Commission. A Commission spokesperson told N1 that independent media are “a key pillar of European democracy.”
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