site.btaGovernment Won't Intervene in Royal Properties Dispute, Withdraws Settlement Motions

Sofia, December 4 (BTA) - There are no legal grounds for the government to intervene in a property dispute between the state and the heirs to Kings Ferdinand I and Boris III, said Justice Minister Tsetska Tsacheva on Monday.

She presented the opinion of an interagency group with the Justice Ministry, set up on the order of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov after former Bulgarian king and MP Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha sent a letter to the Council of Ministers, the Ombudsman and the Parliament Speaker seeking settlement in dispute.

The opinion recalls that a 2009 moratorium staying the management of the properties will remain in effect until the adoption of a special law which is within the competence of the legislative branch of power. The moratorium stays the management of land and properties which have been restituted or given as compensation to the heirs of Ferdinand I and Boris III. Tsacheva said that the property dispute may be settled out of court which is within the competence of legislators.

The heirs of Boris III have filed three complaints with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg but the Justice Minister has no information about these cases, said Tsacheva.

The state has won definitively the lawsuits about the properties in Krichim, Sarigol and Sitnyakovo and at two instances those about the properties in Vrana and Tsarska Bistritsa.

Regional Minister Nikolai Nankov said that his ministry has paid some 1 million leva in lawyer fees in the dispute, as much as the Agriculture Ministry which is also constituted as a party in some of the cases. Nankov said that litigation will go on and the settlement motions will be withdrawn.