Strasbourg Court to Probe Bulgarian Ex-King's Property Claim

The European Court of Human Rights, ECHR decided on Thursday to look into two complaints brought by Simeon Sakskoburggotski and his family related to his attempts to obtain restitution of two properties formerly belonging to the Bulgarian crown.

Former kind Sakskoburggotski, who was also Bulgaria's prime minister from 2001-2005, is seeking the return of the Saragyol complex, a hunting lodge, and the palace of Sitnyakovo estate.

But the Strasbourg-based ECHR dismissed another complaint brought by the former king and his sister over another property, the Krichim estate, finding that the Bulgarian national courts had rejected their restitution claims with solid arguments.

The ECHR ruling was supposed to put an end of the decade-long row over the former royal properties and help the Bulgarian government clarify its position regarding the restitution of the crown's real estate.

The properties were nationaliesd by the government after the abolition of the Bulgarian monarchy in 1946.

Between 1999 and 2004, all but one of the properties, the Krichim estate, were transferred back to the Sakskoburggotski family under the 1992 Restitution Act.

But after the fall of a coalition government involving of Sakskoburggotski's NDSV party in 2008, the GERB parliamentary majority took on the ex-king.

In 2009, the Bulgarian parliament imposed a moratorium on the commercial use and sale of the properties which had been returned to the royal family, which is still in force.

It is intended to last until the National Assembly adopts a new law that specifically addresses the royal family's properties, which has not yet happened.

In the meantime, various governments have launched court proceedings that seek to reverse the earlier...