Ez az oldal jelenleg nincs lefordítva magyarra. A lefordítatlan változat látható.

The truth will be revealed!

Years of imprisonment for excessive pampering of Trump: Possible legal consequences for Aleksandar Vučić after publication in the Guardian on 15 October

On 15 October, the Guardian revealed the existence of evidence that points to the direct and personal involvement of Aleksandar Vučić in the General Staff case. That evidence is already in the General Staff case, and it is expected that the evidence will be presented to the public on 4 November, at the next court hearing.

Under normal circumstances, that evidence should have already led to the initiation of criminal proceedings against Aleksandar Vučić in connection with the General Staff case – for criminal acts punishable by one to eight years in prison. However, political pressures, including those via television, name-calling and insulting the prosecutors, as well as threats directed at them, prevented the public from learning earlier that this case contained evidence of such weight.

The Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime (TOK) confirmed to the Guardian that it has evidence of a meeting held in the Presidency in February 2024, during which Aleksandar Vučić – from a position of power, using his official status and de facto influence – exerted illegal pressure on officials responsible for the protection of cultural heritage.

In this case, Nikola Selaković and three other officials have already been accused of abuse of office and falsification of official documents, by taking illegal actions to enable the construction of the first Trump hotel in Europe – a project that would completely or partially destroy cultural heritage sites in the historical core of Belgrade. The defendants face prison terms of six months to five years.

Nikola Selaković is the first accused minister in that position in the history of Serbia. Serbian society can be proud of this achievement, because it was unthinkable until the General Staff case. Despite systemic corruption, the courage of many made it possible to achieve this.

Now we know that there is evidence that supports the reasonable suspicion that Aleksandar Vučić can also be charged in this case. And now we know that the dubious pardons that he himself granted were probably nothing more than a last-ditch attempt to escape accountability.

Why this matters right now: The current crisis situation

  • **The first time that direct, hard, and unequivocal evidence against Vučić could land him in prison:**Although allegations of Vučić’s illegal actions have surfaced in a number of different cases, this would be the first time that hard evidence is presented against him. Despite extensive domestic and international media coverage of the General Staff case, the Guardian article revealed for the first time that the evidence in this case directly accuses Vučić of crimes that are clearly defined by Serbian law and for which a multi-year prison sentence is threatened. The evidence that is already part of the General Staff case should lead to the initiation of criminal proceedings against Aleksandar Vučić – for crimes punishable by one to eight years in prison.
  • **4 November: We are one court hearing away from the disclosure of the evidence – but will it really happen?**After almost a year of delay, written and other evidence should finally be presented to the public during the fifth court hearing, scheduled for 4 November. When he resigned from the position of president on 27 September in order to run as an “ordinary citizen”, Vučić announced that he had made a decision to pardon 49 people, about half of whom we do not know who they are. If the four indicted are on that list, it would be an attempt at a cover-up, as a pardon would lead to the suspension of the proceedings before the evidence becomes available to the public. However, it is possible that when Vučić granted the pardons, the procedure prescribed by law was not followed, which would mean that the pardons have no legal force – and the pardons would be null and void.
  • “**Disclose the evidence!”:**The public can request access to the evidence by submitting a “request for access to information of public importance”, to which the competent authorities must respond within 15 days. Following the article published in the Guardian, the Ansambl Generalštab initiative submitted three requests on 16 October – related to the General Staff case evidence, and related to the pardons.

Requests were submitted:

  • For the evidence: to the Special Department for Organized Crime of the High Court in Belgrade (the request is available here),
  • For information and documentation on the pardons: to the Ministry of Justice (the request is available here) and the General Secretariat of the President of the Republic (the request is available here).

By law, 15 days is the deadline to respond to requests for access to information of public importance. Will the evidence be disclosed before the 25 October election? Will they be disclosed at all? Within the judiciary, there could soon be a tug of war between those who respect the law and those who are loyal to Vučić.

When it comes to the pardons, based on the statements of both Vučić and the Ministry of Justice, there is reason to suspect that the legal procedure for granting pardons was not followed, and that Vučić committed another criminal offense: abuse of office.

**From one to eight years in prison: the direct consequences of the evidence in the General Staff case.**The text in the Guardian indicates that Vučić, while he was in the position of president, using his position, official status andde factoinfluence, exerted illegal pressure, among others, on officials responsible for the protection of cultural heritage. This would clearly and unequivocally correspond to the objective characteristics of the criminal offense of trading in influence, provided for in Article 366, paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code of Serbia. This crime, by itself, is punishable by one to eight years in prison.

**An even longer prison sentence? Wider consequences of the case.**It is important to keep in mind that the TOK, immediately after submitting the indictment for the General Staff to the court, in a statement on 16 December 2025, informed the public that he “continues to take actions in order to determine whether the actions of some other persons have the characteristics of a criminal offense”. Based on what is already publicly available, Aleksandar Vučić could be charged with a prolonged criminal offense of trading in influence, aimed at representatives of the executive and legislative authorities, as well as endangering the principles of the rule of law and the separation of powers. The consequences of additional investigations could be far-reaching, because:

  • **Unauthorized pressure on the executive power:**First of all, based on the evidence available so far, there is a justified suspicion that Vučić committed a criminal offense of trading in influence aimed at representatives of the executive power (the two Institute directors directly, and then through Minister Malog, and ministers Vesić, Sofronijević, Selaković, Maja Gojković, Gašić and Vučević, together with their assistants) putting pressure on them to use all available means in order to pass two controversial Decisions on revoking the protection status of the General Staff complex despite the absence of the necessary proposal of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments.
  • **Illegal pressure on the legislative authority:**After the initial attempt failed due to the initiation of proceedings by TOK, Vučić continued to commit (now continuously, for an extended period) the criminal offense of trading in influence, this time targeting members of the legislative authority (MP Milenko Jovanov and others). He put pressure on them to propose alex specialis(special law) concerning the General Staff “at any cost” (as he himself publicly stated).
  • **Illegal pressures on the judiciary:**Vučić himself, publicly and on several occasions, made accusations, provocations and threats against members of the judiciary, especially those from the TOK. This led TOK, for the first time in its history, to issue a public statement condemning these attacks. With such attacks, inappropriate qualifications and open threats to the acting public prosecutors, there is reasonable suspicion that Vučić also committed the criminal offense of obstruction of justice from Article 336b paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code, which is punishable by a prison sentence of 6 months to 5 years and a fine.

**And last but not least: controversial pardons as abuse of office.**By passing the decision on pardons, there is a justified suspicion that Vučić committed another criminal act in connection with the General Staff case – abuse of official position. Based on what Vučić stated, it seems that he made the pardon decisions on his own initiative, bypassing the procedure prescribed by law forabolitio(release from criminal prosecution). If this is true, he violated the provisions of Article 11 paragraph 1 of the Law on Pardons, in connection with Article 4 paragraph 2 of the same Law, which stipulate that the procedure for abolition is initiated onlyex officio, by the Minister of Justice. Considering that the Minister of Justice informed the public – and this was confirmed by the Ministry of Justice itself – that the Ministry did not participate in the pardon procedure, it can be concluded that:

Vučić committed an additional criminal act, abuse of official position, andthat the pardons are legally void.

Overall, the General Staff case is an obvious institutional example of what an attempt to completely suspend democracy and constitutional order, by one man who has usurped all the levers of social and political power looks like.