Serbia’s Minister of Culture, Nikola Selaković, repeatedly pressured heritage officials to prepare a document removing the cultural heritage status of the General Staff building in central Belgrade, according to testimony obtained by BIRN.
The revelation comes from Aleksandar Ivanović, acting director of the Belgrade Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, who testified before the Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office on September 29, 2025.
According to his statement, Selaković made a direct request on July 10, 2024, demanding a document formally proposing the removal of protection from the General Staff complex – a symbolically significant structure damaged during the NATO bombings of 1999.
Repeated Pressure From the Minister
Ivanović told prosecutors that Selaković asked “four times” for the document to explicitly carry the title “proposal”, while Slavica Jelača, a senior official at the Ministry of Culture, repeated the same request twice.
Ivanović stated he repeatedly refused, explaining that he had no legal authority to issue such a proposal, which belongs exclusively to the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and requires a team of experts.
Nevertheless, after intense pressure, he provided a document—though only as a non-binding draft, which he described as “a sketch that I did not know what purpose it could serve.”
“Ministerial Orders Cannot Be Refused”
Ivanović admitted that he ultimately yielded, saying:
“I did not want to do it, but I had just been appointed. As we say, you don’t refuse a minister. I knew I was not committing a criminal offense and that the document had no legal effect.”
He emphasized that he repeatedly asked the minister to accept a professional opinion, not a formal proposal, but “Selaković was relentless.”
Irregularities in the Republic Institute
Testimony also reveals dysfunction inside the Republic Institute. Ivanović said that its director, Goran Vasić, claimed he was unable to delete the General Staff building from the central heritage register because experts refused to grant him administrative access to the digital registry.
Vasić later admitted to prosecutors that he had falsified an official document, using the case number from his personal housing request to the ministry and inserting it into the General Staff proposal.
Criminal Charges Filed
Ivanović, Vasić, and Jelača are all suspected of committing the extended criminal offense of abuse of office.
The case has raised serious concerns about political interference in cultural heritage protection, especially concerning a building of major historical, architectural, and symbolic importance.
