Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković arrived at the Special Court shortly before 10 a.m., where the trial of the defendants in the Army General Staff building case began today. At the start of the trial, Selaković and three other defendants all pleaded not guilty.
The trial of Selaković, who is charged with abuse of office in the so-called General Staff case, is being conducted before the Special Department for Organised Crime of the Belgrade Higher Court. At the same time, students maintaining a blockade called for a gathering under the slogan “We are all witnesses”, which was held in front of the court building.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime filed an indictment proposal on 15 December 2025 against Selaković and three other individuals, accusing them of using their positions to exert influence or falsify documents in order to unlawfully strip the General Staff building of its status as a cultural asset.
In addition to Nikola Selaković, those charged include the Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Slavica Jelača; the Acting Director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Goran Vasić; and the Acting Director of the Belgrade Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Aleksandar Ivanović.
Judge on immunity
The prosecutor stood by the allegations set out in the indictment proposal, according to a report by the Beta news agency. The start of the trial attracted considerable media attention, with a large number of journalists following the proceedings from the public gallery. Before the trial began, citizens and students gathered in front of the court building in Ustanička Street, greeting the defendants with shouts of “mafia” and “prison”. One of the defence lawyers described this in the courtroom as pressure on the court and voiced his objection.
The judge announced that by the end of the day he would seek the opinion of the Government of Serbia on whether to activate immunity for the Minister of Culture and to state whether Selaković’s immunity would be lifted or not. Earlier, the presiding judge had also asked Selaković whether he was invoking immunity, to which he replied that he was not.
In addition to abuse of office, Selaković, Slavica Jelača and Vasić are also charged with falsifying an official document, while Ivanović is charged with aiding and abetting the falsification of an official document. The prosecution is seeking three years’ imprisonment for Selaković and Vasić, two and a half years for Slavica Jelača, and one and a half years for Ivanović.
Đukanović: The defence challenged the indictment proposal
Lawyer Vladimir Đukanović, counsel for three of the defendants in the “General Staff” case, said today after the hearing that the defence had fully challenged the indictment proposal, which he described as the most absurd in the history of the judiciary, adding that he was convinced they would emerge from the proceedings as winners.
“If this is about the criminal offence of abuse of office, it is clear that there must either be some benefit gained or damage caused. In the indictment proposal there is neither damage nor has anyone gained any benefit,” said Đukanović, adding that the only damage done was to Serbia, because a lucrative business opportunity for the state had been destroyed.
Asked how the lawyers challenged the indictment proposal today, Đukanović stressed that the key argument of the defence was that there is no criminal offence at all, no damage and no benefit, which, he added, indicates that this is a politically motivated indictment proposal.
“A lex specialis was adopted, and quite simply that act from 2005 produces no legal effect whatsoever, it is all null and void. We are wasting time here; there is no criminal offence, there is no proceeding at all,” said Đukanović.
Students: Silence has consequences
Students who gathered today in front of the Special Court said that this case goes beyond a local issue and that they came because they are all witnesses. Student Dimitrije Radojević pointed out that, according to the indictment proposal, the decision to revoke the status of cultural property from the General Staff complex was made unlawfully, with falsification of documentation and political pressure.
“That is why it is important that these proceedings do not take place in silence, because silence has consequences,” Radojević told fellow students and citizens who blocked part of Ustanička Street. As Minister Selaković entered the court building accompanied by his lawyers, he was met with whistles and chants of “Thieves, thieves”, while the protesters held a banner reading “We are all witnesses”.
Radojević stressed that they had not gathered in order to exert pressure on the court, but to show that the proceedings against Selaković and the other defendants have an audience.
“We bear witness as students and as citizens, as part of a world that understands that cultural heritage belongs to everyone and that its protection is not measured by political interests,” Radojević said, adding that the trial of Selaković and the other defendants is a test for citizens and institutions, as well as for the future of Serbia in which the rule of law is an unshakable pillar of the social order.
The students conveyed a similar message in a letter they submitted to the Special Court after Selaković entered the building accompanied by lawyers Vladimir Đukanović and Dragan Palibrk.
Brnabić: The trial of Selaković is the destruction of the state
The Speaker of the Serbian Parliament, Ana Brnabić, said today that the trial of Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković is senseless and shameless and that it represents the destruction of the state.
“You preserved the ruins destroyed by NATO, yet you do not blame NATO,” Ana Brnabić said on Pink television.
She said that the “blockaders (anti-government protesters) are emotionally unstable”, that Serbia and the Serbs are always to blame in their view, that they oppose the construction of roads and that they would apologise for everything.
What Selaković said earlier
Selaković previously stated that he was looking forward to the trial in the “General Staff” case because it would “expose the whole story”, assessing that it was a political construct and political action by the public prosecutor’s organisation, which he accused of criminal activity. After being questioned on 4 December last year at the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime, he said that he had given a statement and proven that this was a “blockader joint criminal gang that has usurped part of the state and the state system and, within that undertaking, is trying to overthrow the government in an illegal manner”.
“They are not just an organised criminal group, they are an autoimmune disease in Serbia,” Selaković said, adding that the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime is destroying what is legal, lawful and constitutional in the state.
After the indictment proposal was filed, Selaković assessed that “the real target is President Aleksandar Vučić, who is their main threat”. “They are aiming at me, but hitting the President,” the minister said.
Selaković’s lawyer, Vladimir Đukanović, assessed that the proceedings against his client are a “legal absurdity”, claiming that the General Staff did not have the status of a cultural asset because the 2005 decision to that effect had been declared null and void.
“I asked for the legal situation to be clearly established. Let me remind you – this is a decision from 2005 by which the General Staff building was allegedly declared a cultural asset, but that decision was later declared null and void. This means that the building never had the status of a cultural asset and therefore could not have been protected in terms of the alleged damage to cultural heritage,” Đukanović said.
Members of the Serbian Parliament adopted a lex specialis on the General Staff building in November last year, providing for the implementation of a project for the revitalisation and development of the site in Belgrade between Kneza Miloša, Masarikova, Birčaninova and Resavska Streets. The explanatory memorandum to the law states that the revitalisation of that area represents a general interest of importance for the overall economic development of Serbia.
(NIN, 06.02.2026)
Photo credits: Ana Paunković (TANJUG)