Controversial Court Ruling in Favour of Simeon Saxe Coburg

In a highly controversial ruling, the Bulgarian Court has allowed wood-cutting in the lands belonging to the country’s former Tsar, Simeon Saxe Coburg.

The permission will be effective until a ban on wood-cutting, issued by the head of the State Forest Estate, comes into force.

The decision is controversial because at the beginning of October the lower court banned these activities: the ban was supposed to have immediate effect. This inexplicable twist has left senior politicians and ordinary Bulgarians both mystified and enraged. Many are talking about “double standards” and question why the former Prime Minister is allowed preferential treatment.

The issue is even more divisive because Simeon Saxe Coburg’s very right of owning those lands is in question. In 2003, the Bulgarian Parliament (controlled at the time by Simeon’s party) decided to return seized assets to the Royal Family; the compensations included those 450 hectares of forest lands, for which, according to some politicians and most legal experts, there was absolutely no basis. Indeed, just weeks ago several senior Bulgarian officials threatened Simeon Saxe-Coburg with court actions for the “disproportional compensations”.

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Filed under Bulgaria
Tagged Government, Legal Matters, Scandal, Simeon II of Bulgaria.