Affinity Partners, owned by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, has denied any role in the reassessment of the cultural heritage status of the General Staff building site in Belgrade following the arrest of Goran Vasić, acting director of Serbia’s Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments.
The company stated that construction has not yet begun and the project’s future is now uncertain. They also condemned the alleged forgery of documents related to the protected cultural status of the “Belgrade Square” project by a former Serbian government official with no connection to Affinity Partners.
The New York Times reports that the Trump family faces controversy over a $500 million luxury hotel and residential project planned on the site of the bombed Ministry of Defense building in Belgrade. The key government document enabling the project’s approval was reportedly falsified.
Goran Vasić admitted during interrogation to falsifying the document that would have allowed the demolition of the historic former Ministry of Defense complex, heavily damaged during the 1999 NATO bombing, to make way for the Trump hotel — planned to be the first of its kind in Europe.
The project had received preliminary government approval before the cultural heritage status of the site was officially revoked last year, sparking significant public outrage in Serbia.
