MINISTER SELAKOVIĆ PRESENTED HIS DEFENSE: He claims that the trial for the General Staff case is “politically motivated”!

The first defendant, Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković, presented his defense in the Special Court, where the trial of him and other defendants in the “General Staff” case continued.

Nikola Selaković presented his defense, saying that the proceedings are politically motivated and not based on legal grounds. He also said that the process is characterized by the biased actions of the prosecution and that neither he nor any of his associates had intent, caused harm to anyone, or gained any benefit.

As he stated, only the state could have benefited.

Minister Selaković then moved on to the discredit of the prosecution, saying that the goal of the prosecution is to demean and discredit the highest state bodies, create internal instability, and bring about political changes outside of procedures.

He continued with the discredit of the TOK (Prosecution for Organized Crime), saying that their official statements were untrue, and that information was leaked to opposition parliamentary parties as well as certain media outlets. He then stated that there were 1,583 negative posts about him leading up to the filing of the indictment.

Next, Selaković moved on to the discredit of the prosecutorial assistant, even suggesting in the courtroom that the president of the council show photos of him visiting or participating in student protests.

Minister Selaković spent the most time discrediting the former director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Dubravka Đukanović, who is also a witness in these proceedings, as well as her deputy, Estela Radonjić Živkov, who is also a witness.

For longer than 45 minutes, the minister spoke about the former director Đukanović, her husband, and her daughter, discrediting them the entire time and basing his defense on it. He claimed that Dubravka Đukanović committed criminal acts where she abused her official position to the detriment of the state and secured benefits for her daughter’s commercial company.

Since the president of the judicial council tried to stop the minister and tell him to address exclusively the allegations in the indictment, rather than having his entire defense consist of statements and allegations about Dubravka Đukanović, Selaković continued with the discredit.

His lawyer, Dragan Palibrk, stated “that he has the right to discredit and compromise her” in order to call her testimony into question.

Minister Selaković then based his defense on the discredit of the chief prosecutor for organized crime, Mladen Nenadić.

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Minister greeted with whistles

Ahead of the start of the trial, a group of students and citizens gathered in front of the court, seeing the minister off with whistles and shouts of: “ua, ua,” “thieves, thieves,” “resignation, then prison,” and “SNS mafia.”

Students in the blockade had previously called on citizens to gather in front of the court today under the slogan “We are all witnesses.”

The trial of Selaković and the other defendants began on April 4 and has generated significant media interest.

Selaković accused of abuse of position

According to the indictment of the Prosecution for Organized Crime, Selaković and the others are charged with abuse of official position in connection with the removal of cultural property status from the old General Staff; in their initial statements, they denied guilt.

The suspects for abuse of official position and forging official documents are the director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Monuments Goran Vasić, the director of the City Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments Aleksandra Ivanović, and the secretary of the Ministry of Culture Slavica Jelača.

According to the indictment, acting on Selaković’s order and violating procedure, they bypassed experts from the Republic Institute and the Ministry of Culture’s Sector for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and Digitization, and sent a Proposal for a Decision on the termination of the cultural property status of the General Staff building to the Government with untruthful content, after which a special law was adopted in the Serbian Parliament.