Minister Nikola Selakovic in front of the Special Court in Belgrade. Photo: BIRN/Milica Stojanovic.
The trial opened in Belgrade on Wednesday of Culture Minister Nikola Selakovic and three others for allegedly illegally removing the cultural heritage status of the landmark former Yugoslav Army headquarters in Belgrade, bombed by NATO in 1999, to pave way for its redevelopment.
The other suspects are the secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Slavica Jelaca, the acting director of the State Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Goran Vasic, and the acting director of the Belgrade City Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Aleksandar Ivanovic.
All of them have pleaded not guilty.
The lifting of the former army HQ’s cultural asset status was needed to allow for its demolition, to make way for a new investment project believed to be a Donald Trump-style complex. The project was linked to the Affinity Partners investment firm owned by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, According to the Wall Street Journal, Kushner gave up on the plan after the indictment and over the protests against the project.
Prosecutor Vojislav Isailovic said the four defendants had “caused damage to the cultural heritage of the Republic of Serbia”. He said the prosecution would call some 10 witnesses to corroborate its case.
Selakovic’s defence rejected all the allegations, claiming the whole process was politically motivated by the Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime. The defence also claimed that no damage was done to Serbia by lifting the heritage status from the bomb-damaged former army HQ, which defence lawyer Dragan Palibrk refered to as “ruins”.
All the defendants are charged with abuse of their official positions, while Selakovic, Jelaca and Vasic are indicted for forgery of an official document and Ivanovic for abetting in forgery.
The defence also says no criminal act arose from anything that the defendants did, because in November 2025 Serbia’s parliament adopted a “lex specialis” to speed up the redevelopment of the former Yugoslav Army HQ, which had annulled the earlier cultural heritage status decision, dating from 2005.
Prosecutors from the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime protest in Belgrade over legal amendments adopted by parliament. Photo: BIRN/Milica Stojanovic.
Trial takes place as pressure on judiciary grows
Selakovic is first minister in Serbia in 25 years to go on trial while still in office. The trial is taking place amid growing concerns about government pressure on the judiciary, particularly the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime, which indicted Selakovic.
Before the hearing, prosecutors from the Office for Organised Crime office staged a protest in front of their office for a second day in a row, to show their discontent with new legal amendments that they claim will weaken the role of the office, by effectively cutting the number of prosecutors in the body.
In December, as part of a campaign against the Office for Organised Crime, President Aleksandar Vucic threatened that he would pardon all those accused in the matter of the former army HQ, as he was to blame for having “wanted to bring in a major investor”.
Selakovic is a veteran member of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, and a senior state official since the party came to power in 2012. He was Justice Minister, secretary general of the president’s office, Foreign Minister and Labour Minister before becoming Culture Minister in 2024.
Selakovic has denied wrongdoing.
According to case files seen by BIRN, Ivanovic told the prosecutor’s office that he denies committing any crime but gave in to pressure from Selakovic to issue a draft decision on revoking the cultural heritage status of the old army HQ, even though he did not have the authority to do so.
Jelaca told the prosecutor’s office she had never knowingly done anything unlawful. Vasic admitted his role in the affair in May.
The Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments has yet to delete the former army HQ from its register of protected cultural monuments.