Former Bulgarian Tsar Simeon Saxe-Coburg, who also served as the country's PM 2001-2005, will allegedly sue the Bulgarian state for freezing his ownership of lands formerly returned to him, according to sources from Mediapool.bg.

Simeon has allegedly personally called Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov to inform the latter of his intention to file a claim against Bulgaria at the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights.

In the end of 2009 the Bulgarian Parliament voted to freeze the former Tsar's rights to lands in the Rila mountains, on grounds of information disclosed after an investigation at the Ministry of Agriculture, according to which the former monarch was granted more land than his family actually owned. Bulgarian courts have also found a number of errors and violations in the procedure for returning lands to Simeon.

According to Mediapool.bg's information Sunday, the Ministry of Agriculture has already filed a claim against the former Tsar for the return of all 16 000 decares of forests he received in Rila.

Earlier this month the District Court in the city of Plovdiv dismissed the claims brought by Simeon and his sister, who declared ownership on the former Krichim royal residence.

The question of the so called “Tsar’s estates” has become an issue disgruntling the Bulgarian society in the recent years over doubts that the property was given to Saxe-Coburg unlawfully during his term as Prime Minister (2001-2005).

Simeon II is the last monarch of Bulgaria, having reigned with regents 1943-1946 (aged 6-9), after the death of his father Boris III. After the communist takeover in 1944, a controversial referendum was held 1946, at which people voted in support for the creation of a republic, and this led to banishing of the royal family from the country. In 1947 a new constitution was adopted proclaiming Bulgaria a republic. Simeon returned to Bulgaria in 2001 and swiftly founded a liberal political party (National Movement Simeon II, later National Movement for Stability and Prosperity), which won a landslide victory in the general elections the same year.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!