State secretary at Serbia’s Ministry of Culture suspected in case linked to Jared Kushner’s Belgrade project

Jelaca, appointed acting State Secretary last year, was first questioned in early September as a witness. However, this week she was interrogated again, this time as a suspect, over two consecutive days. She appeared with her attorney, Vladimir Djukanovic, after previously giving testimony without legal representation.

According to Insajder, Jelaca confirmed during questioning that, along with other suspects, the directors of the Republic and Belgrade Institutes for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, she participated in the unauthorized preparation of documentation used by the Serbian government on November 14, 2024, to revoke the protected cultural status of the former Yugoslav Army General Staff and Ministry of Defense buildings in Belgrade.

Before Jelaca, the two directors, Goran Vasic and Aleksandar Ivanovic, reportedly admitted to falsifying documents that led to the Ministry of Culture’s proposal to remove the buildings’ protected status. Investigators found that the initiative lacked the mandatory conservator’s report and that the required public notice was never issued.

Despite these irregularities, the Ministry forwarded the documentation to the government, which approved the decision in November 2024. Behind the move, Insajder notes, was an agreement to sell the two Generalstab buildings to Kushner’s company for the planned “Trump” complex in downtown Belgrade.

Notably, Vasic, the lead suspect, has since been reinstated as director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments.