VUČIĆ ON GENERAL STAFF CASE: “No falsification, no delay in project realization!”

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has denied any delay in Jared Kushner’s firm’s plans to build a luxury hotel on the site of the bombed General Staff complex in Belgrade.

The planned “Trump” chain hotel, owned by the family of Kushner’s father-in-law, US President Donald Trump, with an estimated value of $500 million, requires the demolition of the former Serbian Army General Staff building, which was significantly damaged during the 1999 NATO bombing.

This week, however, Goran Vasić, the acting director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, was arrested on suspicion of falsifying documents to facilitate Kushner’s firm in realizing the project, Bloomberg reminds. The prosecution announced that the former head of the state institute for the protection of cultural heritage “abused his official position” by falsifying signatures on a document proposing the revocation of protection over the military building.

“There was no falsification whatsoever, and we will discuss everything with everyone,” Vučić said in response to a question from a Bloomberg reporter in Tirana, where he is participating in the European Political Community summit.

“You know, that’s what always happens,” Vučić said, comparing the accusations of falsification to those previously made by opponents of the “Belgrade Waterfront” project, which caused controversy and protests in Serbia.

“And now everyone is very proud of that project,” Vučić assessed, stating that some former opponents of that project later even “bought apartments in that settlement that many of us could not afford.”

The Serbian President emphasized that Kushner’s plan for the General Staff is an “important project for us.”

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Mali: Any comment could be interpreted as interference in the investigation

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Siniša Mali, unlike Vučić, was much more reserved yesterday regarding Vasić’s arrest, stating that any comment on the matter could be interpreted as interference in the work of the prosecution and the proceedings.

Mali also refused to comment on the New York Times article on the topic, for which Kushner’s company, Affinity Partners, stated that they played no role in reviewing the cultural status of the site and that the project’s fate is now less clear.

“I will not comment on what the New York Times wrote, nor can I comment on investigations. I cannot comment on something that is in the process of the prosecution’s work,” Mali stated.

Siniša Mali added that due to the independence of the judiciary and the prosecution, any comment could be misinterpreted.

“So, let them do their job, and when they finish, we will know what and how it is, and then we can react. I would not give any comments or statements now so that they would not say that I am influencing their investigation and their proceedings in any way,” Mali stated.

Vasić admitted to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime that, by exceeding his official authority, he falsified the Proposal for a Decision on the Termination of Cultural Property Status for the buildings of the General Staff of the Army of Serbia and Montenegro and the Ministry of Defense in Belgrade, on Kneza Miloša Street.