BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s Culture Minister Nikola Selakovic and three other officials went on trial on Wednesday on charges of abuse of office and falsifying documents in connection with a real estate project that was to be financed by a company of Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

Kushner has since withdrawn from the planned multi-million investment that envisaged building a high-rise hotel, a luxury apartment complex, office spaces, and shops to replace a sprawling bombed-out military complex in central Belgrade.

The plan was backed by the government of Serbia’s autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic, who had said it would help improve ties with the US. But the Serbian public and international heritage groups opposed the idea of turning the protected cultural heritage zone into a commercial compound.

Built by prominent 20th-century Yugoslav architect Nikola Dobrović, the building was damaged in the 1999 US-led NATO bombing of Serbia over Kosovo. Many Serbs are still angry over the air war, launched to stop Belgrade’s crackdown against separatist ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

The building is considered a masterpiece of modernist architecture, and heritage groups have called for it to be preserved and revitalized.

Selakovic, who is a close ally of Vucic, and three other officials are accused of........

© The Times of Israel