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Wednesday, March 27, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Once-exiled child king of Bulgaria prevails at European rights court

Bulgaria abolished its monarchy before the 18th birthday of the heir to the throne, only 9 years old when the Communist Party executed his uncle, the prince regent. 

STRASBOURG, France (CN) — The last heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Bulgaria didn’t get a fair trial when he contested the confiscation of royal property by communists who took over the country, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday. 

Known once as Simeon II, the last heir to the Bulgarian monarchy was only 6 years old when his uncle, Prince Kiril, became reagent following the death of Czar Boris III, Simeon II's father. Three years later, in 1946, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was forced into exile when a Soviet-backed coup deposed the monarchy. His uncle was executed by the Communist Party. 

A 1947 law allowed the Communists to take control of a number of royal properties, including multiple estates, botanical gardens and an expanse of forest. But once that government fell in 1991, the royal family began a series of legal battles to force the government to return their assets. 

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha returned to Bulgaria in 1996, founded his own political party and was elected prime minister in 2001. The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday, however, that the Bulgarian judiciary ultimately failed to adjudicate the uncrowned czar's series of legal complaints. 

Although the Bulgarian Constitutional Court held in 1998 that the Communist-era property law was unconstitutional, it stopped short of saying that the state must return the properties. Bulgaria's parliament later passed a 2009 law forbidding the royal family from using what properties had been returned to them in a “commercial” capacity. 

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, together with his sister, Maria-Luisa Borisova Chrobok, brought the complaint before the rights court after decades of legal action hadn’t led to a satisfactory resolution. The court was created in 1959 by the European Convention of Human Rights, which protects the civil and political rights of Europeans. 

“Article 6 § 1 secures to everyone the right to have a claim relating to his civil rights and obligations brought before a court,” the seven-judge panel wrote, referring to a provision of that convention. "The right of access to a court must be practical and effective."

Since the 2009 law was not subject to judicial review, the rights court said it violated the fair trial rights of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and his sister. The law prevented the siblings from using the forestry lands for the lucrative logging trade, which the court found to be a disproportionate punishment. 

Simeon Borisov von Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 2017. (Creative Commons image via Courthouse News)

The court rejected complaints from the royals about some of the properties, specifically two estates called Saragyol and Sitnyakovo, finding that the royals did not have “legitimate expectation” to be recognized as the owners. 

Other legal proceedings around the properties are ongoing. In July, the Sofia Court of Appeals returned the Royal Palace of Vrana to Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The 84 year old currently lives in the palace with his wife. 

Bulgaria's government must pay 5,000 euros ($6,000) in legal expenses to Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as part of the latest ruling. The court reserved other damage claims in the hopes that the parties could work out an amicable solution. 

During the four-year term of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as prime minister, Bulgaria joined NATO and assisted the United States with the War in Iraq. 

Follow @mollyquell
Categories / Appeals, Civil Rights, International

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