Guardian: Vucic Demanded General Staff Protection Lifted

The British newspaper The Guardian reported on October 15 that Aleksandar Vucic personally demanded, at a February 6, 2024 meeting in the Presidency, that the then director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments lift the protected status of the General Staff building. The meeting is not mentioned in the indictment in the General Staff case, and the Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office (TOK) confirmed to the paper that it has evidence about it. The student initiative Ansambl General Staff today asked the court to make that evidence public, and asked the Pardons Commission for the names of everyone Vucic pardoned.

What does The Guardian say about the February 6, 2024 meeting?

According to The Guardian, Dubravka Djukanovic, a professor of conservation who headed the Institute for three years, came to the Presidency for a meeting about the building of the former Yugoslav Ministry of Defense. The paper cites two people familiar with the meeting who say Vucic demanded that she remove the building’s legal protection because an unnamed foreign investor was interested in the site. Another official responsible for heritage protection was also present.

The message, according to The Guardian’s two sources, was to do as he asked or resign. Vucic himself had confirmed the same building as a legally protected cultural property in 2016, Nedeljnik notes, citing the British paper. Under Serbian law, the decision to strip that status was not Djukanovic’s to make: her institute would have had to commission an expert opinion with valid grounds.

Djukanovic gave The Guardian a brief answer:

“I would rather not make statements on this matter while the court proceedings are ongoing.”

She and Olivera Vuckovic, Belgrade’s top official for heritage protection, confirmed to the paper that the account of the events is accurate. Vucic did not respond to The Guardian’s requests for comment.

Timeline: from the meeting to the indictment

The Guardian ties the sequence of events to several separate documents and dates, so we list them one by one.

• March 2024: an agreement between the Serbian government and Kushner’s company leaked, showing that the General Staff site was to be leased for 99 years at no charge.
• May 13, 2024: the date of a contract The Guardian has seen. In it the state commits to lifting the cultural property status “to the satisfaction” of Kushner’s company.
• Around May 20, 2024: a week after the contract was signed, Finance Minister Sinisa Mali held a meeting with Djukanovic and Vuckovic, without Vucic. That was roughly three months after the February meeting. According to the indictment, Mali asked whether they would start the procedure to lift the protection. Both refused, and Mali, repeating the February ultimatum, said they should resign in that case. Both did.
• November 2024: the government announced that the cultural property status had been lifted, ten days after Trump’s election victory.
• December 2025: Culture Minister Nikola Selakovic was indicted for abuse of office. Goran Vasic, who took over the Institute after Djukanovic, was arrested, and the prosecution alleges he falsified the expert opinion.

The planned hotel and residential tower were valued at around 500 million dollars. After the indictments, Kushner’s company said the project would not go ahead “at this time”. Representatives of the Trump and Kushner families told The Guardian they had nothing to do with the lifting of the protection, and that a claim of a “favors for money” scheme would be “false”.

Vucic and Mali have not been charged, and both deny breaking the law. After the indictments, Vucic called the prosecutors “corrupt gangs”, and The Guardian also quotes his earlier words:

“We lost an exceptional investment. I will personally make sure that everyone who took part in causing this damage is held accountable.”

What are students asking of the court and the Pardons Commission?

The Ansambl “General Staff” initiative was launched by students of the Faculty of Architecture and the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. According to N1, a freedom of information request was filed today with the Higher Court in Belgrade, and Masina reports that it was scheduled to be handed in at noon, on Ustanicka Street. The request to the Pardons Commission at the Ministry of Justice was announced for 1 p.m. The legal team backing the student movement announced a gathering at noon in front of the Palace of Justice, followed by a walk to the Ministry of Justice and the Presidency, where the requests are expected to be delivered.

From the Commission, they want the names of all 49 people Vucic pardoned, along with the reasoning behind the decisions. Sources differ on timing: N1 and FoNet say he signed the pardons on September 27, while Masina says they came after his resignation as president, submitted the same day so he could run for prime minister. The identity of roughly half of those pardoned is not public.

Initiative member Valentina Moravcevic, a student at the Faculty of Applied Arts, explained to FoNet the reason for the request:

“The next hearing in the General Staff case is scheduled for November 4, and the former president of the Republic, Aleksandar Vucic, pardoned a large number of so far unknown persons just before submitting his resignation. We suspect that he pardoned four of the accused in the General Staff case.”

The accused in the case are Selakovic, Slavica Jelaca, Vasic and Aleksandar Ivanovic, charged with abuse of office and forging an official document. It has not been confirmed that any of them is among the pardoned. Moravcevic also told FoNet what the students fear:

“We are afraid that, because of the pardons, that hearing will be cancelled and that this evidence will never reach the public.”

In a statement, Ansambl said: “Evidence does not belong in a drawer but before a court, and without it the public cannot trust the proceedings.” Moravcevic added that the initiative does not want to influence the judges: “We are not putting pressure on the court, we are showing our interest.”

What happens next?

The reports we read do not include any response from the Presidency, the Ministry of Justice or the court to the requests. The next hearing is scheduled for November 4, ten days after the early elections called for October 25. The Guardian says the election decision means the hearing at which witnesses might reveal details of Vucic’s involvement will not take place before voting ends. Ansambl, according to Masina, believes that publishing the evidence before the election would let the public learn all the circumstances of the case, instead of the key information coming out only after the vote.

As for TOK itself, its spokesperson told The Guardian that the prosecution ran a pre-investigation procedure to establish possible criminal liability of other persons as well.