Serbian authorities have arrested the former acting director of the country’s top cultural heritage institute on charges of forging official documents to facilitate a controversial real estate project backed by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, prosecutors said on May 13.

Goran Vasic, who headed the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments (RZZSK), is accused of falsifying a document that allowed the Serbian government to strip landmark status from the bombed-out Yugoslav General Staff building in central Belgrade, paving the way for the development of a Trump-branded luxury complex.

The Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime said Vasic exceeded his official authority and committed “abuse of office” and “falsification of an official document”, charges that carry prison sentences under Serbia’s criminal code.

The building, destroyed in Nato airstrikes during the 1999 Kosovo war, has long stood as a potent symbol of Serbia's wartime suffering. The plan to replace it with a hotel and high-end residences has already triggered widespread condemnation from civil society groups, architects and opposition parties, who argue the site should be preserved as a national memorial.

The project is being developed by Kushner’s Miami-based investment firm, Affinity Partners, in collaboration with UAE property tycoon Mohamed Alabbar. Kushner, who left the White House in 2021, shared digital renderings of the proposed complex in March. Pre-sales are scheduled to begin in mid-2025.

Critics view the venture as a political move by the Serbian government to curry favour with the US government. Trump had first expressed interest in the Belgrade site in 2014. In recent months, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has held several high-profile meetings with Kushner and Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who visited Belgrade in April.

“The falsified proposal, made without consultation with professional conservators, was sent to the government through the Ministry of Culture,” prosecutors said in a statement. The government officially revoked the cultural status of the site on November 14, 2024.

According to local media outlet N1, the investigation was launched following an anonymous criminal complaint, with Serbian intelligence and interior ministry agents later recovering the allegedly forged documents from the institute.

Vasic, who is not certified as a conservator, lacked the qualifications required to authorise changes to protected cultural properties, the report adds.

The arrest comes amid a broader wave of anti-government protests sparked by public anger over corruption and institutional failures. In November, a collapsed train station canopy roof in northern Serbia killed 16 people, fuelling demonstrations against Vucic’s administration and alleged cronyism.

On March 24, thousands of Serbians took to the streets to mark the anniversary of the Nato bombing campaign, rallying against the planned development. Protesters condemned what they described as the “commercialisation of national tragedy” and accused officials of betraying Serbia’s heritage.

The Belgrade project, one of several foreign-funded initiatives aimed at transforming the Serbian capital in the lead up to Expo 2027, remains a political flashpoint in the country’s increasingly polarised public discourse.