TRUMP-KUSHNER HOTEL PROJECT IN SERBIA HITS SNAG

Official forges document allowing it to be built on protected site.

- By Eric Lipton

The Trump family's US$500 million luxury hotel project in Serbia, slated to be built on the site of a bombed-out Defence Ministry building, has run into an embarrassing complication. A key document the Serbian government has relied on to deliver this deal was forged, officials there said last week.

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, and his business partners plan to build a luxury residential and commercial complex on the site of the long-vacant compound that is slated to include a Trump International Hotel, the first in Europe.

The leader of the Serbian agency charged with protecting cultural monuments admitted to authorities that he had forged a government document allowing the former Yugoslav Ministry of Defence headquarters in Belgrade to be demolished and replaced with the Trump hotel.

The project won tentative approval from the Serbian government last year, even before the government officially moved to revoke the protected historic status of the former Defence Ministry complex, which was heavily damaged during a 1999 bombing campaign by Nato.

Serbian government officials say the agency leader, Goran Vasic, fabricated an expert opinion to justify the government's decision to strip the site of its cultural heritage status.