Overview
- Serbia’s organized crime prosecutor filed an indictment against Culture Minister Nikola Selaković and other officials for abuse of office and forging an official document tied to removing protections on the site.
- Affinity Partners confirmed it is withdrawing from the roughly $500 million project, saying it would step aside out of respect for Belgrade residents, with no allegations of document falsification against the firm.
- A court must now decide whether to confirm the indictment, and prosecutors say their broader investigation continues.
- The plan relied on a 99-year lease to redevelop the former Yugoslav army headquarters, a modernist complex damaged in NATO’s 1999 bombing and granted protected status in 2005, drawing sustained protests from architects and civic groups.
- President Aleksandar Vučić denounced the probe as a “witch hunt,” lamented the lost investment, and vowed to hold to account those he accuses of scaring off the developer.