{"id":16791,"date":"2025-12-16T18:20:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T18:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/serbia-prosecutors-charge-minister-others-in-connection-with-kushner-linked-project\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T18:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T18:20:22","slug":"serbia-prosecutors-charge-minister-others-in-connection-with-kushner-linked-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/serbia-prosecutors-charge-minister-others-in-connection-with-kushner-linked-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Serbia prosecutors charge minister, others in connection with Kushner-linked project"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<p>                                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1765801707000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\">                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template>                    <span data-date><\/span>                <\/bsp-timestamp>            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>                                    <bsp-page-actions>                            <\/bsp-page-actions>                                                            <\/div>\n<div>\n<p>BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) &mdash; Serbia&rsquo;s prosecutor for organized crime on Monday charged a government minister and three others with abuse of office and falsifying of documents to help pave the way for a real estate project linked to <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/jared-kushner\">Jared Kushner<\/a><\/span>U.S. President Donald Trump&rsquo;s son-in-law.<\/p>\n<p>Proposed criminal charges were announced against Culture Minister Nikola Selakovi&#263;, who is a close ally of autocratic President Aleksandar Vu&#269;i&#263;, and three other officials, according to a statement published on the official website of the Public Prosecutor&rsquo;s Office for Organized Crime. <\/p>\n<p>The investigation centers on a controversy over a bombed-out military complex in central Belgrade that was a protected cultural heritage zone, but that is facing redevelopment as a luxury compound. <\/p>\n<p>Last year, Serbia&rsquo;s government signed a <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/kushner-trump-serbia-belgrade-army-nato-kosovo-0b75a408be8d3f97f081a7e65df07e02\">99-year-lease agreement<\/a><\/span>  with Kushner-linked Affinity Global Development in the U.S. At the time, Kushner confirmed reports that his company plans to finance the $500 million project. It would feature a high-rise hotel, a luxury apartment complex, office spaces and shops.<\/p>\n<p>Selakovi&#263; and others allegedly illegally lifted the protection status for the site by forging documentation.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn&rsquo;t immediately clear when a trial could be held.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal to build a high-rise hotel, offices and shops at the site is backed by Vucic&rsquo;s government, but has met fierce opposition from experts at home and abroad, as well as the Serbian public. <\/p>\n<p><span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/serbia-kushner-trump-tower-special-law-69b8c6f0969b30b3911875c841f323b9\">Serbian lawmakers passed a special law<\/a><\/span>  last month clearing the way for the construction, despite the ongoing investigation. Vu&#269;i&#263; has said that the project would be good for Serbia&rsquo;s relations with the United States and that he would pardon anyone convicted in the case. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I am guilty,&rdquo; he said recently. &ldquo;I am the one who wanted modernization of Serbia. I am the one who wanted to bring in a big investor.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. administration has imposed tariffs of 35% on imports from Serbia. It has also <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-us-serbia-oil-sanctions-7e84f9d0ff3eab8421c6aa90e1f27903\">sanctioned Serbia&rsquo;s monopoly oil supplier<\/a><\/span>which is controlled by Russia.<\/p>\n<p><span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/kushner-trump-serbia-belgrade-army-nato-kosovo-0b75a408be8d3f97f081a7e65df07e02\">Critics say the building<\/a><\/span>  is an architectural monument, seen as a symbol of resistance to the U.S.-led NATO bombing that remains widely viewed in the Balkan country as an unjust &ldquo;aggression.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Serbia was bombed in 1999 for 78 days to force then President Slobodan Milo&scaron;evi&#263; to end his crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Anti-NATO sentiment remains strong in Serbia, and the U.S. role in revamping the military buildings is particularly sensitive among many Serbians.<\/p>\n<p>The buildings are seen as prime examples of mid-20th century architecture in the former Yugoslavia.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/serbia-minister-charged-development-project-kushner-dbc98597eb0da5f1b1fdde4a05f2ceac\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) &mdash; Serbia&rsquo;s prosecutor for organized crime on Monday charged a government minister and three others with abuse of office and falsifying of documents to help pave the way for a real estate project linked to Jared KushnerU.S. President Donald Trump&rsquo;s son-in-law. Proposed criminal charges were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}