Jared Kushner drops investment in Serbia

2025-12-15 21:57:58, Kosova & Bota CNA

Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, has withdrawn from a project to build a hotel in Belgrade, the Wall Street Journal reported on December 15.

The project was envisaged on the site of the former General Staff complex, which was destroyed during NATO bombing in 1999.

Kushner's company, Affinity Partners, had planned to build a luxury hotel there.

The news came on the day when the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime in Serbia filed an indictment against the current Minister of Culture, Nikola Selakovic, for violations during the removal of the ownership status of cultural objects on the General Staff buildings in central Belgrade.

Selakovic is accused of abuse of official position and falsification of official documents.

"Because great projects should unite, not divide, and out of respect for the citizens of Serbia and Belgrade, we are withdrawing our application and standing aside this time," a spokesperson for Kushner's private investment company, Affinity Partners, stated, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office has been conducting investigations since May into the suspected forgery of documents, which served as the basis for the Serbian Government to remove the cultural property status of the General Staff building in Belgrade.

According to previous charges by the Prosecutor's Office, the director of the Republican Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Goran Vasic, admitted to forging documents.

Based on that documentation, an initiative has been submitted to the Ministry of Culture, which is led by Selakovic from the ranks of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), to adopt a decision to remove the status of cultural property for the General Staff building.

Selakovic was questioned on December 4th and, after giving his testimony, he did not talk about the proceedings, but made accusations and insults against the Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office.

Without providing any evidence, he accused him of acting on the orders of several centers of power, which he did not name, but said were aimed at overthrowing the Serbian government and Serbian President Aleksandar Vu?i?. /REL