It's no wonder that in in the case of the General Staff Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić insisted on defending the accused Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković for whom the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime is looking for three years in prison. In the light of new information, his frequent outbursts on this issue are understandable.
Dubravka Djukanovic, the previous director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, confirmed for "Vreme" that at one of the two meetings at which she was asked the year before last to facilitate the conditions for the cancellation of the status of cultural property for the General Staff, attended in person Vucic.
According to her, the meeting was held on February 6, 2024 in the Presidency.
Dubravka Đukanović did not mention that meeting in the resignation that she sent to the Minister of Culture, Nikola Selaković, and which was published in the media. She described only the second meeting held on May 22, after which she and Olivera Vučković, the previous director of the City Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, resigned because they refused to contribute to the abolition of the protection status of the General Staff.
"Vučić was at a meeting"
As Dubravka Đukanović told Vreme, President Vučić was not present at that meeting, at least not while she was present.
The meeting was held in the Ministry of Finance, led by Minister Siniša Mali, and attended by the head of his cabinet Luka Tomić, the chief urban planner of the city of Belgrade Marko Stojčić and representatives of the Ministry of Culture - State Secretary Miomir Đorđević, Secretary of the Ministry Slavica Jelača and Assistant Minister in the Sector for Cultural Heritage and Digitization Danijela Vanušić, which she stated in her resignation.
Let's remind you that Đukanović wrote in her resignation that she was told at that meeting "that if, as the director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, she does not support the removal of protection for the General Staff buildings in Belgrade and thereby enable the demolition of this building, she should resign on June 3."
On January 21, in the Serbian Parliament, Marinika Tepić, president of the parliamentary group of the Party of Freedom and Justice, spoke about the involvement of President Vučić in the General Staff case. She stated that he was at both of the aforementioned meetings, showing the papers on which, as she said, it was written.
"All that I am presenting today should be considered a verbal criminal report against Aleksandar Vučić as the principal for abuse of official position and trading in influence," said Marinika Tepić.
"I'll break up the gang"
At the end of December, commenting on the indictment that is allegedly being prepared against him, President Vučić said that it would be the "crown of his career", saying that he would destroy the "criminal gang".
"They are not indicting me because I am a 'criminal', because I 'stole' something. They are not prosecuting me because I did something bad for our country. They are prosecuting me because someone ordered that I must be persecuted from the outside. And someone said that maybe we will break it and that way we will destroy Serbia. You will not succeed in any of that. And I will never invoke immunity and I will defeat and destroy that criminal gang that thought to destroy the state of Serbia," he noted. is then Aleksandar Vučić.
So far, the Minister of Culture has been blamed in the General Staff case Nikola Selakovic, secretary of the Ministry of Culture Slavica Jelača, director of the City Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments Aleksandar Ivanović and acting director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments Goran Vasić. All of them are charged with criminal acts of falsification of documents and abuse of official position.
For Minister Selaković, the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime is seeking a sentence of three years in prison. The main hearing is scheduled for February 4.
