Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, has withdrawn from a project to build a hotel in Belgrade, the Wall Street Journal reported on December 15.
The project was envisaged on the site of the former Yugoslav Army General Staff building, which was destroyed during NATO bombing in 1999.
Kushner’s company, Affinity Partners, had planned to build a luxury hotel there.
The news came on the day when the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime in Serbia filed an indictment against the current Minister of Culture, Nikola Selakovic, for violations during the removal of the ownership status of cultural objects from the former General Staff building, in the center of Belgrade.
Sellakovic is accused of abuse of official position and falsification of official documents.
“Because great projects should unite, not divide, and out of respect for the citizens of Serbia and Belgrade, we are withdrawing our application and standing aside this time,” a spokesperson for Kushner’s private investment company, Affinity Partners, stated, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office has been conducting investigations since May into the suspected forgery of documents, which served as the basis for the Serbian Government to remove the cultural property status of the former General Staff building in Belgrade.
According to previous charges by the Prosecutor’s Office, the director of the Republican Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Goran Vasic, admitted to forging documents.
Based on that documentation, an initiative has been submitted to the Ministry of Culture, which is led by Selakovic from the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), to approve a decision to remove the cultural property status of the former General Staff building.
Sellakovic was questioned on December 4th and, after giving his testimony, he did not talk about the proceedings, but made accusations and insults against the Organized Crime Prosecution.
Without providing any evidence, he accused him of acting on the orders of several centers of power, which he did not name, but said aimed at overthrowing the Serbian government and Serbian President Aleksandar Vu?i?.
On December 11, Vu?i? said that, if an indictment is filed in the case of the former General Staff building, he will pardon all those “suspected of participating in fraud.”
“I will not give them the opportunity to prosecute those who are not guilty. I am the guilty one. I am the one who wanted to modernize Serbia. I am the one who wanted to bring in a big investor,” Vu?i? said.
On November 7, the Serbian Parliament passed a special law that stripped the former General Staff building of its cultural property status, paving the way for the construction of a luxury complex.
This project sparked opposition from anti-government demonstrators, the opposition and experts who call for the preservation and restoration of the 20th-century building.
Kushner also has plans for a project on Albania’s Adriatic coast.
The project envisions transforming Sazan Island – filled with abandoned bunkers and tunnels from the communist era – into a luxury resort.
The 45-hectare project, approved by the Strategic Investment Committee on December 30, 2024, is worth 1.4 billion euros and is expected to create around 1,000 jobs in Albania.
However, there is still no public information on whether contracts have been signed, whether environmental permits have been issued, whether feasibility studies have been completed or construction plans have been approved./ REL