Minister: I Am Not Real Target, Vucic Is

Aleksandar Vucic, Nikola Selakovic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Serbian Minister of Culture Nikola Selakovic, who has been charged by the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime in the General Staff building case, said on Dec. 15 that he was "looking forward to the trial, because it will mark the end of the blockaders."

In an appearance on Informer TV, he accused the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime of being part of a criminal organization which allegedly includes certain media outlets and an unnamed subsection of the opposition, and said that "the true target is President Aleksandar Vucic, who is the chief threat to them."

"I am honestly glad that this has been done, and I'm certain that this will mark the end of the criminal organization around the rogue [Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime] and prosecutor Mladen Nenadic, who is at its head. It will finally come out who undermined the state, because this will be the trial of those very people who wanted to change the government without elections, through violence and on foreign orders... They're aiming for me, but they're targeting the president," the minister said.

According to him, some media outlets have had access to the charge sheet against him, even though both he and his attorney are yet to receive it.

"A part of the opposition has a significant role in this too. It's all happening between Nenadic, the tycoon media and a part of the opposition... They started doing it methodically years before Nov. 1, 2024. The elaborate machinery of the tycoon Dragan Solak has been working to tear down the system for years," Selakovic said.

The Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime on Dec. 15 charged Selakovic and three other persons with abuse of office and falsification of official documents related to illegalities in stripping the General Staff building complex in downtown Belgrade of its cultural asset status.