The third hearing of the case was held in the Special Court in Belgrade "General Staff", at which defenses were presented by State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture Slavica Jelača and Acting Director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments Goran Vasić.
The last defendant, Aleksandar Ivanović, director of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade, will present his defense at the next hearing on September 21.
During her defense presentation, Slavica Jelača said that she suffered extremely strong pressure in connection with this case, as she said - a kind of media chase, writes N1.
She did not want to answer the prosecution's questions, stressing that they treated her unfairly while she was being interrogated, because of which, as she said, she suffered stress. Jelača said before the court panel that her age does not allow her to allow herself the same thing.
She denied what she was accused of and pointed out that she did not benefit anyone, nor did she do any harm, stating that she was only doing her job, which she said was primarily administrative and involved obtaining opinions from other authorities.
The State Secretary also stated that she does not know what the original is in this case, so she could not even forge it.
She also referred to the lex specialis for the General Staff, stating that it declared null and void the decision on the cultural property of the General Staff buildings and that in that sense it could not have caused any damage and that the only damage to the General Staff buildings was caused by NATO bombing.
An unusual meeting where there was smoking and drinking
When asked by the president of the court panel if he remembers the key meeting Minister Selaković with the two accused directors of the institution, Jelača replied that she had numerous meetings with the minister and that she does not remember that particular one, but that she remembers the meeting with the chief prosecutor of TOK Mladen Nenadić, which she said was unusual for her because there was smoking and drinking in the cabinet.
Let us remind you that the meeting that the president of the court panel asked about was held on July 10, 2024 and was attended by Minister Nikola Selaković and two directors of the city and republic institute. Selaković allegedly then asked them to remove the protection from the General Staff building.
"One Terrible Trial"
The prosecutor referred to Jelača's statement that she was treated unfairly and said that she signed the minutes of the hearing and had no objections to it. Then one of the defense attorneys, Vladimir Đukanović, intervened and said that he was present during the interrogation of Jelača and that he can testify that her interrogation was "a terrible interrogation", that she was under stress and couldn't wait to go outside.
To the comment of the president of the court panel that even he, as a defense attorney, had no objections, Đukanović replied that he did not have the opportunity to present them.
Vasic without answer
The defense of the acting director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Goran Vasić, was brief. He did not refer to the allegations of the indictment, that is, what he is charged with. He said that he was resigned and that he would not answer anyone's questions, neither the prosecutor, nor the court, nor the defense attorneys.
He said that he survived a media lynching, and not only him, but also his family and the whole environment, that his 30-year-long career was threatened by a large number of media captions and that thousands of photos of him with a hood on his head were published in the media "as if he were a member of a drug cartel in Mexico."
A lawyer from his legal team, which is common to the other defendants Selaković and Jelača, said that Vasić was brought to the prosecutor's office for questioning for four hours after he had a coronography performed at the Dedinje Institute and that it was inhumane treatment. Because of this, but also because of the fact that his statement in the prosecutor's office was presented as a confession, he refused to answer questions because he does not want his words to be twisted again, the lawyer added.
Ivanovic's special request
The third defendant who was supposed to present his defense today, Aleksandar Ivanović, did not do so because he requested to do so without interruption at a special hearing, as Slavica Jelača was also able to do. Upon stating that he has more than two hours to present his defense, and that he will be allowed to speak at the next hearing if he needs it, his defense and he insisted that they cannot predict in advance how many questions they will have and how much time they will need.
In the end, the court decided that Ivanovic will present his defense at the next hearing, which is scheduled for September 21.
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