Investigators focus on plans to redevelop a bombed-out military complex, a protected cultural heritage site slated for a luxury hotel, offices and shops.

A Serbian prosecutor has charged Culture Minister Nikola Selaković and three other officials with abuse of office and falsifying documents connected to a Kushner-linked real estate project in Belgrade that would lift the site’s protected cultural status.

Public sentiment is sensitive due to the site’s historical significance and its NATO bombing associations, complicating talks about replacing heritage with new development.

Vučić’s government has shown support for the project, pushing modernization and foreign investment, and even proposing pardons for convicted individuals amid ongoing investigations.

Upcoming court steps include a preliminary decision on whether to confirm the indictment, with broader implications for Serbia’s heritage framework and development rules.

There is no immediate trial date announced as proceedings unfold amid political debate and international context.

The General Staff complex remains legally protected pending proper status changes, so demolition or major construction cannot proceed without lawful heritage procedures and updated registers.

Goran Vasić, interim head of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, admitted to forging the official document used to remove the site’s cultural heritage designation.

The indictment highlights tensions between heritage protection and high-value redevelopment, including a November lex specialis governing the site’s redevelopment.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime in Serbia has indicted Selaković and three others over allegedly removing protected status from Belgrade’s former Yugoslav Army General Staff complex to facilitate redevelopment.

The redevelopment proposal has sparked backlash from cultural experts and the public, who oppose altering a landmark tied to resistance to the 1999 NATO bombing and mid-20th-century Yugoslav heritage.

The drive to remove protection aims to clear the way for demolition and a new project, reportedly resembling a Donald Trump–style tower linked to Kushner-affiliated Affinity investment.