Jared Kushner had planned to co-fund the redevelopment of a Belgrade site bombed by NATO in 1999<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner has withdrawn from a planned luxury hotel project tied to redeveloping a site in Serbia bombed by NATO in 1999, according to media reports.
\nThe move follows a prosecutor\u2019s filing on Monday to indict senior Serbian officials over the removal of cultural-protection status from the former Yugoslav army headquarters complex in central Belgrade, which had been earmarked for the development.
\nLast year, Serbia\u2019s government approved a long-term lease deal with Kushner-linked Affinity Global Development to redevelop the site into a complex expected to include a hotel, apartments, offices, and shops, despite sustained public opposition.
\nA spokesperson for Affinity Partners was quoted by the New York Times as saying that the firm was stepping away because it did not want the project to deepen divisions and that it was doing so out of respect for Serbia and its capital.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Thousands protest Trump son-in-law\u2019s Serbia hotel project (VIDEOS)<\/p>\n
According to Reuters, the public prosecutor for organized crime filed an indictment against Culture Minister Nikola Selakovic, a ministry official, and the head of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, accusing them of abuse of power and forgery linked to lifting the site\u2019s protected status. Selakovic has denied any wrongdoing. There was reportedly no indication of wrongdoing by Kushner or his company.
\nThe location is part of the General Staff complex, a former Yugoslav army headquarters heavily damaged during NATO\u2019s 78-day bombing of Serbia and Montenegro over the Kosovo conflict. Human Rights Watch has estimated that around 500 civilians were killed, and the campaign was carried out without UN Security Council authorization.
\nOpposition parties have criticized the half-billion-dollar project, while President Aleksandar Vucic and his government have defended it as a move to modernize the capital. On Tuesday, Vucic told reporters that Serbia had \u201clost an exceptional investment\u201d and vowed to hold those responsible to account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jared Kushner had planned to co-fund the redevelopment of a Belgrade site bombed by NATO in 1999 US President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner has withdrawn from a planned luxury…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t