The Japan Times - Serbian minister on trial over Trump-linked hotel plan

Nikola Selakovic and the three other defendants were jeered as "thieves" by dozens of protesters as they arrived at the Belgrade court.

Prosecutors say officials forged key documents that would have cleared the way for a Trump-branded luxury hotel to be built on the site of the bombed-out former Yugoslav army headquarters in the capital.

Selakovic had waived his right to ministerial immunity, allowing the trial to proceed, and all the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.

"It is not clear to me what wrongdoing I am accused of," Selakovic told the Special Court for Organised Crime.

The plan to demolish the army headquarters faced fierce opposition in Serbia, as the site was regarded as both a memorial for the victims of a NATO-led bombing campaign in 1999 and a rare example of modernist architecture.

Despite the outcry and an ongoing investigation into the project's approval, the government moved to fast-track the work by issuing a document allowing the removal of the site's "cultural-heritage status".

But the plan, backed by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, was ditched in December after organised crime prosecutors indicted Selakovic and three others for alleged abuse of office and forgery.

"Because meaningful projects should unite rather than divide, and out of respect for the people of Serbia and the City of Belgrade, we are withdrawing our application and stepping aside at this time," Kushner's Affinity Partners said at the time.

The trial is the first of a sitting minister in decades in Serbia and has drawn strong reactions from both supporters and critics of President Aleksandar Vucic.

Vucic and government ministers have criticised prosecutors over the hotel case and over a trial linked to a deadly train station roof collapse in November 2024.

The disaster sparked a widespread, student-led anti-corruption movement and calls for early elections, which Vucic has rejected.

S.Yamada--JT