A Serbian government minister and three other officials went on trial on February 4 on charges of abuse of office and falsifying documents in a case linked to a high-profile real estate project once backed by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.

Culture Minister Nikola Selakovic and three co-defendants are accused of manipulating official documents to strip heritage protection from the former Yugoslav army General Staff complex in central Belgrade, clearing the way for a luxury redevelopment, prosecutors said in December.

The proposed project, valued at around $500mn, envisaged replacing the bombed-out military complex with a high-rise hotel, luxury apartments, offices and retail space, potentially becoming the first Trump-branded hotel in Europe. The site was destroyed during Nato’s 1999 bombardment of Serbia and Montenegro. It was later designated a protected cultural monument.

Kushner withdrew from the investment in December after the project triggered protests and became entangled in a corruption investigation. The indictment was filed the same day by Serbia’s Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime.

Alongside Selakovic, those charged include ministry secretary Slavica Jelaca, Goran Vasic, acting director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, and Aleksandar Ivanovic, acting head of Belgrade’s city heritage institute. All deny wrongdoing.

The case centres on a decision by President Aleksandar Vucic’s government to revoke the site’s protected status. Vasic was arrested early last year on suspicion of falsifying expert assessments used to justify the move, prompting a wider probe.

The General Staff buildings remain a sensitive symbol in Serbia, widely seen as a memorial to victims of Nato’s bombing, which continues to shape public attitudes toward the West.

The trial comes amid mounting tensions over judicial independence. Judges and prosecutors across Serbia went on strike on February 2 to protest newly adopted justice laws that critics say undermine the autonomy of the courts and threaten corruption and organised crime cases.

Parliament passed the amendments on January 28 under an urgent procedure, without public debate. The changes expand the powers of court presidents over judges and weaken safeguards protecting prosecutors’ independence.

They also affect the Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime, which brought the case against Selakovic. Under the new rules, prosecutors seconded to the office must return to their original posts, reducing its staff from 20 prosecutors to nine, according to critics.

Opposition parties and legal experts say the reforms are designed to weaken prosecutors investigating senior officials. President Vucic signed the laws despite warnings from legal professionals and criticism from the European Union.

“The vote by Serbia’s Parliament to limit the independence of the judiciary is a serious step back on Serbia’s EU path,” EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said on X.

The dispute unfolds amid a broader political crisis following the collapse of a concrete canopy at Novi Sad railway station in November 2024 that killed 16 people, sparking a year of nationwide protests led by students demanding accountability and action against corruption.