Serbia’s Minister of Culture Goes on Trial in General Staff Building Case

Nikola Selakovic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

On Feb. 4, the Special Court in Belgrade commenced the trial of Serbian Minister of Cultural Nikola Selakovic, accused of forging documents that removed national heritage site status from the former Army of Serbia General Staff Building in downtown Belgrade, severely damaged in the 1999 NATO bombing.

Ahead of the proceedings, a larger group of university students, opposition MPs and members of the general public gathered in front of the courthouse to greet the defendants with whistles and calls of “Thieves, thieves!”

Somewhat earlier, a group of prosecutors and other employees of Special Court – which processes cases of organized crime for the entire country – also gathered for about 10 minutes in front of the courthouse in protest of the recently adopted amendments to six judicial laws. It was announced that they would be continuing the short, symbolic protests in the coming days.

In addition to Minister Selakovic, three other state officials are standing trial as well: Goran Vasic, the director of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia, Aleksandar Ivanovic, the director of Belgrade’s landmark protection institute, and Slavica Jelaca, the secretary of the Ministry of Culture.

According to the indictment, the defendants are accused of violating procedure by circumventing relevant experts and institutions and submitting to the Cabinet a forged proposal for removing the General Staff Building’s heritage status, which was subsequently confirmed in Parliament via a lex specialis.

This was the first step that would allow the demolition of the General Staff building so that the site could be developed into a luxury housing and business complex. Said project was supposed to be handled by Affinity Partners, a company owned by U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. On Dec. 15, however, the day the indictment was filed against Selakovic, Kushner’s company announced it was withdrawing from the project.

No direct reasons were offered for the move other than a statement that the decision was made “out of respect for the citizens of Serbia and the City of Belgrade.”

Meanwhile, the prosecution has requested a three-year prison sentence for Selakovic.

During his hearing at the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime, Selakovic denied all wrongdoing, maintaining it was “untrue” that he ordered anyone to forge the documents used by the Cabinet to remove heritage status from the General Staff Building in November 2024.

Selakovic also publicly accused and insulted the Prosecutor’s Office, claiming the prosecutors are doing “the bidding of unnamed power centers” whose goal is toppling Serbia’s regime and President Aleksandar Vucic.

The same allegations were repeated by Vucic himself on multiple occasions.

The demolition of the General Staff Building and development of its site has been strongly resisted by Serbia’s political opposition, experts who have called for the site’s protected status to be reinstated and the university students leading countrywide anti-regime protests for over a year.