News overtook each other that Monday, December 15th.
As soon as the public began to "digest" the historical news that the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime filed an indictment against a current minister - Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković, new bad news for the regime arrived from the United States of America. As "The Wall Street Journal" (WSJ) announced, Jared Kushner, son-in-law of Donald Trump, abandoned the construction project in the area of the General Staff.
"Since significant projects should unite and not divide, and out of respect for the people of Serbia and the city of Belgrade, we are withdrawing our application and withdrawing at this time," said a spokesperson for Kushner's private investment firm "Affinity Partners" for the WSJ.
In a slightly more detailed statement for N1, the aforementioned spokesman added that their vision for the project in Belgrade was to offer "an elegant and inspiring design that pays tribute to the progress of Serbia", and that they are "proud of the architecture" that their team designed.
Thus, at least for now, the danger of prolonged criminal activity by the current government, at least in the area of the former General Staff, has been removed.
photo: instagram of the president / phonet...and the collapse of the plans of A. Vučić and Dž. Kushner with the General Staff complex
However, many questions remain: whether Kushner will be replaced by another "investor", whether and how much the state of Serbia will have to pay penalties due to the "skillfully" drafted contract and the failure of the deal, as well as how the court proceedings will continue.
Because, disgusted by the thought that someone could even prosecute a member of the ruling clan, let alone because of the new reality that is being created before their eyes, on Monday and Tuesday both Selaković and Vučić, as well as all the propaganda newspapers, alternately threatened the TOK, and the citizens who "drove away an investment of 750 million dollars" and caused damage of "at least 1,5 billion".
What was new about this behavior – which could perhaps qualify as a separate crime, obstruction of justice – was a certain resignation and defeatism in the president's speech on Tuesday.
There were bombastic announcements, there was also radical anger at the existence of a judicial body that openly opposes him; also, maybe there was frustration due to the potential missed profit - only, the message that Vučić conveyed with his entire performance did not go much further than that he is angry and that he is powerless to change the things that make him angry. But let's start in order.
CHRONOLOGY OF CRIMINAL ACTION
"Yesterday, the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime filed an indictment on the fabricated affair 'General Staff' against the Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković and three other people, with which, despite the fact that they have no evidence, they set out to overthrow President Aleksandar Vučić and the authorities in Serbia", read the news on Tuesday on Informer television, written by Katarina Odalović.
photo: Rade Prelić / Tanjug...
This is the main message broadcast by propaganda channels under the control of the authorities in Serbia - the "General Staff" case is invented, it is carried out by the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, alienated from the people, which is an extension of the mystical entity called "blockaders", and everything is part of the repeatedly defeated colored revolution, which is intended to overthrow the only conceivable ruler of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, and the country is to be destroyed and sold to foreigners, instead of being built, investors and measured investments are brought in in hundreds of millions of euros.
But what is Selaković actually accused of?
As announced on Monday by the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, the indictment against the Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković, Secretary of the Ministry of Culture Slavica Jelača, Acting Director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments Goran Vasić and Acting Director of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade Aleksandar Ivanović was filed due to illegality during the removal of the status of cultural property from the "General Headquarters" buildings.
"The suspects are charged with having committed two criminal acts: abuse of official position from Article 359 paragraph 1 and falsification of an official document from Article 357 paragraph 2 in connection with paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code", announced the Prosecutor's Office and added that "it continues to undertake actions in order to determine whether the actions of some other persons have the characteristics of a criminal offense".
According to the Criminal Code, a prison sentence of six months to five years is provided for abuse of official position, and that is for an official who "using his official position or authority, exceeding the limits of his official authority or failing to perform his official duty obtains any benefit for himself or another natural or legal person, causes any damage to another or seriously infringes the rights of another".
When it comes to falsifying an official document, this criminal offense carries a prison sentence of three months to five years, and that for an official "who uses an untrue official document, book or file in the service as if it were true, or who destroys, conceals, damages to a greater extent, or otherwise renders an official document, book or file unusable".
Where did such accusations against Selaković and others come from?
The media has already written about it, but it is worth repeating. In July 2024, the then "freshly" appointed director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Goran Vasić, submitted a request to the Ministry of Culture to resolve his own housing issue, all in order and as it should be, through the office of the Institute.
Then he used the number of that request and under it wrote a proposal for a decision, on his own, without the knowledge and necessary participation of the Institute's experts, which would remove the protection from the General Staff building in the center of Belgrade, the architectural work of Nikola Dobrović, which acquired the status of a cultural monument in 2005. Vasić took this forgery to the Ministry of Culture and handed it over to Slavica Jelača, the secretary in that ministry.
On the same day, at the express request of the new Minister of Culture Selaković, a similar proposal was brought to the ministry by Aleksandar Ivanović, also at that time the "freshly" appointed director of the Belgrade Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments.
Ivanovic knew that it was not within the authority of the city institute to send proposals for decisions to the Ministry of Culture, but that only the republican institute could do that, but at Minister Selaković's repeated insistence, he called his document "decision proposal" instead of "opinion", as he, Ivanović, wanted.
"The ministry does not deny itself", Ivanović will later declare before the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime.
After the Ministry of Culture received those two fake documents, Slavica Jelača began shaping them into a proposal for a decision that the Ministry of Culture will send to the Government of Serbia for decision. Jelača was not allowed to do this since she was not competent to deal with cultural heritage and removal of protection, but the Sector for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and Digitization which - there it is alive and well - exists in the Ministry of Culture. However, despite the existence of that Sector, Jelača handled the removal of protection through "her" secretariat, without the knowledge of experts from the Ministry of Culture.
Who told Jelači to take it to work? The secretary in the Ministry of Culture did not name Minister Selaković during the hearing before the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, but said that she "received the case from her superior" and that "the minister said to start the procedure before the Government".
"It is not my place to know the matter concerning the protection of cultural heritage", Jelača said at the hearing at the Prosecutor's Office and added that it is important for her to know the form in which the acts adopted by the Government are prepared.
All this was undertaken because in May 2024, the then Minister Goran Vesić, on behalf of the Government of Serbia, secretly signed a contract with the aforementioned Kushner's company "Affinity Partners", according to which the state undertook to clear the area where the General Staff buildings are located, to remove the property of cultural property from them, so that commercial and residential buildings and the luxury hotel "Trump" could be built there.
Finally, in November 2024, the Government of Serbia made a decision on the removal of protection from the premises of the General Staff on the basis of falsified documents.
WHO SHOULD BE RESPONSIBLE?
All this was known to the public thanks to the media, and not because of the transparent work of the Government. However, vicissitudes are starting now, after the long-awaited indictment against Selaković.
First of all, will Selaković or the Government of Serbia invoke the minister's immunity and thus avoid a trial? Selaković said on Monday that he was looking forward to the trial, because it would not be his trial, "but that organized criminal blockade gang from TOK, headed by prosecutor Mladen Nenadić".
This, Selaković said, "will mark the end of the organized criminal gang led by Mladen Nenadić", then, that "there is a connection between the gang headed by Nenadić, the tycoon media and the opposition", as well as that it was all organized from abroad. In short - a fairly common conspiracy theory that has been passed as official state policy in these areas for 35 years.
What is still not clear is the reason why neither Mladen Nenadić, the chief prosecutor of TOK, nor the Prosecution prosecutes Minister Selaković and his accomplices for such and similar statements. However, this pounding on patriotic chests will not mean much if Selaković's boss judges that it does not suit him that the minister is actually on trial. Of course, the indictment proposal must first become legally binding, that is, it must be confirmed by the court.
And Vučić made a similar appearance on Tuesday, saying that he too can't wait for the trial, but not Selakovic's, but the one that TOK would conduct against himself, Vučić.
"I want to answer, I am guilty. I wanted such a large investment to come to our country. And in that case, I can't wait for the indictment against me, against Aleksandar Vučić as the President of the Republic. In the same second, I will pardon all others against whom the indictment may be brought," Vučić said.
Vučić's trial, at least in this case, still has a relatively long way to go. Before him, many other ministers and civil servants need to explain the matters in the "General Staff" case to the prosecution.
Because, in order for the falsified and non-existent draft decision to be forwarded to the Government of Serbia, several ministries and services had to give their opinion on it: the Ministry of Finance (Minister Siniša Mali), the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure (Minister Goran Vesić), the Republic Secretariat for Legislation (Director Dejan Đurđević) and the General Secretariat of the Government of Serbia (then General Secretary Novak Nedic).
All of them should first explain to the prosecutor's office how they were not bothered by the falsified and incomplete proposed decision for which they gave their positive opinion. Previously, the circumstances of how the contract with Kushner's company could have been signed should be explained to the prosecution - for example, in addition to Vesić, Defense Minister Bratislav Gašić and the then Minister of Culture Maja Gojković could be called to the prosecution.
Siniša Mali would have to answer why he convened a meeting where the then directors of the Republic and Belgrade Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments were told that they had to remove protection from the General Staff or resign. Only when all those mentioned have explained their actions before the prosecutor's office, the one who boasts that he did it all and that it was all his idea and order - Aleksandar Vučić - could be heard.
PRESSURE ON THE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE CONTINUES
photo: sava radovanović / tanjugAFTER YEARS OF SILENCE AND UNDERSTANDING WITH AUTHORITY, AN OPEN CONFLICT HAS COME: Republic Public Prosecutor Zagorka Dolovac
Until then - who is alive, who is dead. Given the amount of illegal influence and pressure the government exerts on them publicly, through the propaganda media in their service, one can imagine the pressure and threats acting TOK prosecutors and their families are under, which the public still does not know about. Apart from the threats to the prosecutors - Selaković said that he will judge them, not the other way around, and Vučić said that he will personally file criminal charges against the prosecutor - the very institution of the Prosecutor's Office for organized crime is also threatened.
It seems that the original idea, put forward through the combined action of MP Uglješa Mrdić and Minister of Justice Nenad Vujić, of joining the TOK to the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, was abandoned. However, in his impotent rage, Vučić announced new actions on December 15:
"If you want to file an indictment against TOK for corruption (...) to the point that, on someone's order, they are deliberately destroying investments in Serbia, economic undermining of the country and overthrowing the constitutional order, these are the most serious crimes, and now, if I were to file a criminal complaint against, say, the head of TOK and against his prosecutors, they would write me the answer themselves since they are responsible for themselves. (...) We will change that very quickly. They lied about how we would we are changing the laws in order to abolish the TOK, but those persons will also be responsible before the law, and not be exempted from the law. Neither Nenadić, nor Isailović, nor Bajić, nor I know who, can be above the law," said Vučić.
He also announced that he would personally file criminal charges against all persons who "participated in the chase and destruction of this investment" - and against the police, the prosecutor and "other persons".
"But they will not answer to me about themselves, there will have to be some other prosecuting authority responsible for them, and not for them to write rejection of criminal charges for themselves," said Vučić.
As the best student of the Faculty of Law in Belgrade in its history, the lawyer Vučić failed to tell him on that occasion where the crime "economic undermining of the country" is located in the Criminal Code, how much punishment is threatened and similar trifles.
Therefore, if Selaković or the Government do not invoke the minister's immunity, if something does not happen to the acting prosecutors and their families, if TOK chief prosecutor Mladen Nenadić does not decide that TOK will "battle" the whole case or is content to leave everything to Minister Selaković, if the government fails to suppress the prosecution or block its work, if the police and other state bodies act according to the orders of the prosecution, it is possible that the "General Staff" case will penetrate to the very "heart" darkness", from where it originated.
However, there are too many "ifs" here for such an undertaking to succeed. Despite the publication of several unusually sharp and precise statements, the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime and Mladen Nenadić have not shown much interest in prosecuting members of the executive and legislative authorities and other civil servants who obstruct their work.
Also, despite the unprecedented synchronized attacks by members of the authorities and propaganda media on the institution of the Prosecutor's Office, no one from the TOK has yet come out and held a press conference, where they would talk about these attacks and answer questions from journalists, nor has anyone from the TOK given an interview about these unpleasant events - as if everything is happening to another prosecutor's office, in another country.
HOW MUCH WILL ALL THIS COST?
Finally, one of the questions that arises after Kushner's withdrawal from the "General Staff" project is - how much will it cost the state of Serbia?
On Tuesday, the Forbes portal, which together with the newspaper "Radar" was the first to publish the contract between the Government of the Republic of Serbia and Kushner's company, presented in its analysis the information that only the "strategic partner", i.e. "Affinity Partners" has the right to terminate the contract due to unfulfilled previous conditions.
As Forbes writes, one of the reasons for the termination could be the condition that "no significant negative change has occurred" since the day of the contract, that is, "any change that would be materially harmful to the business, property and condition of the joint venture". From this point of view, it is indicative that the American partner gave up on the same day when the indictment was filed against the minister and others.
As "Forbes" further writes, in the event of cancellation of the contract due to non-fulfillment of the previous conditions, Serbia has only five days to pay the costs of termination, and those costs are one million euros plus transaction costs.
Forbes cites another reason for which Kushner's company can seek compensation from Serbia - and that is that Serbia has violated one of the given guarantees, among which is that - "all the approvals and consents of the competent authorities issued so that the state could conclude the contract, are valid, that is, they are in force".
For the violation of these guarantees, there is no limit in the amount of the possible claim of the American partner, while all other claims are limited to a maximum of 50 million euros, explains Forbes.
On the one hand, it's a lot of money. On the other hand, the damage to the legal order and cultural heritage of the country - if the project had been realized - would have been immeasurable and irreversible. What would Selaković and Vučić say - we are looking forward to the trials.
