The reputable American newspaper The Wall Street Journal writes that Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, has withdrawn from his investment venture in Serbia - the planned project to build a Trump Hotel on the site of the General Staff building in Belgrade.
As N1 and Insider report in the Wall Street Journal, this happened after the project sparked protests and after an indictment was filed against "a senior Serbian politician."
Insajder reports a statement from a spokesperson for Kouchner's private investment firm Efiniti Partners: "Since meaningful projects should unite, not divide, and out of respect for the people of Serbia and the city of Belgrade, we are withdrawing our application and are withdrawing from the project at this time."
In this way, as the Wall Street Journal writes and Insider reports, the controversial project that Kushner worked on for more than two years was ended.
The Wall Street Journal also points out that Trump's son-in-law was initially said not to return to government service, but that he has now taken on a major geopolitical responsibility by offering to help lead negotiations to end the war between Ukraine and Russia, after playing a similar role regarding the situation in Gaza.
The Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime today filed an indictment against Serbian Culture Minister Nikola Selaković and three other people in the General Staff case, namely the Secretary of the Ministry of Culture Slavica Jelača, the Acting Director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments Goran Vasić, and the Acting Director of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade Aleksandar Ivanović.
The indictments were filed in connection with illegalities in the removal of the status of cultural property from the buildings of the "General Staff", the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
The suspects, as added in the statement, are charged with committing two criminal offenses - abuse of official position and forgery of an official document.
Selaković was questioned as a suspect at the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime on December 4, when he presented his defense, N1 reminds.
After the hearing, Selaković made a series of accusations against TOK in front of reporters.
In his address, he called the prosecution an "autoimmune disease," emphasizing that it was a "blockade criminal gang that has usurped part of the state and part of the state system."
Reporting the news of Kouchner's withdrawal, Insider provides the entire genesis of the "General Staff" case.
"Two weeks after the tragic collapse of the canopy in Novi Sad, the traumatized public was left speechless by the information that the Serbian government had passed a decision to terminate the status of cultural property for the General Staff buildings and to remove them from the register of immovable cultural property. However, that was the starting point of the process that led to today's indictment," writes Insajder.
In order for the decision to remove the General Staff, this media outlet reminds us, an initiative by the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments to remove protection from the complex was necessary.
As employees of the institution later said in the pre-trial proceedings, they were unable to find an initiative to remove the protection in the electronic registry. They found a paper with the signature of the acting director, Goran Vasić, proposing the removal of the protection. However, that document was missing a study by the professional services of the institution, without which it is not possible to send the initiative.
However, Insajder points out, these details only reached the wider public in May of this year, when Goran Vasić was arrested by order of the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime on suspicion of abusing his official position and forging documents, and, according to the prosecution, he confessed to the crime during questioning.
The prosecution requested detention, but the court rejected this proposal, finding that a ban on approaching witnesses was a sufficient measure.
After the prosecution launched an investigation, the expert community insisted that the government withdraw the controversial decision until its legal basis was established, Insider reminds. However, as it adds, government representatives not only failed to do so, but also subsequently sought to remove additional legal obstacles to the demolition of the General Staff.
At the beginning of November this year, the parliament adopted, through an urgent procedure, a Lex Specialis for the General Staff, which maximally accelerates procedures that would enable the cleaning of the terrain where the General Staff is currently located.
However, as Insajder points out, the accelerated procedure for drafting the law led to an oversight - it did not remove the legal protection of the entire complex along Kneza Miloša Street that the government adopted in 2020, which led to the extremely unusual situation of the parliament adopting an authentic interpretation of the newly adopted law, in order to correct the aforementioned oversight.
"At the very moment when laws and authentic interpretations were being adopted in the Parliament, a contract surfaced to the public, providing a possible answer to the question of why there is such a rush to remove legal obstacles," writes Insajder.
The agreement, signed in May 2024 by Serbia and the company Atlantic Incubation Partners LLC, backed by Kushner, envisages the establishment of a joint company in which the US partner will have a 77,5 percent stake and Serbia 22,5 percent, and the obligation to demolish all the facilities itself.
The contract committed the government to clean up the land, as well as to remove legal obstacles by May 2026, and if it fails to do so within the stipulated deadline, it is obligated to pay penalties of up to $50 million.
"The investigation that began with Vasić quickly expanded. It first included Aleksandar Ivanović, director of the Belgrade Institute, but also the secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Slavica Jelača. Finally, the investigation reached the Minister of Culture, Nikola Selaković," the Insajder article states at the end.
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