if json_resp['status'] == 'OK':
    for pred in json_resp['predictions']:
        desc = pred['description']
if 'Novi Sad' in desc or '\u041d\u043e\u0432\u0438 \u0421\u0430\u0434' in desc:
    obj = {'name': pred['description'], 'reference': pred['reference']}
json_result['suggestions'].append(obj)
return json.dumps(json_result)
Python закодировал строку utf-8 \xc4\x91 в Java