FOURTH SECTION
CASE OF DIMOV v. BULGARIA
(Application no. 14642/15)
 
 
 
 
JUDGMENT
 
STRASBOURG
3 May 2022
 
This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Dimov v. Bulgaria,
The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:
 Iulia Antoanella Motoc, President,
 Gabriele Kucsko-Stadlmayer,
 Pere Pastor Vilanova, judges,
and Ludmila Milanova, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application (no. 14642/15) against the Republic of Bulgaria lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) on 18 March 2015 by a Bulgarian national, Mr Veselin Nikolov Dimov, born in 1962 and living in Zhelyo Voyvoda (“the applicant”), who was represented by Ms Y. Dimova, a lawyer practising in Burgas;
the decision to give notice to the Bulgarian Government (“the Government”), represented by their Agent, Ms A. Panova, of the Ministry of Justice, of the complaints concerning the delay in finalising the restitution procedure the applicant was a party to, and to declare the remainder of the application inadmissible;
the parties’ observations;
Having deliberated in private on 29 March 2022,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
1. The case concerns the restitution of agricultural land. The applicant complained under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1, Article 6 § 1 and Article 13 of the Convention that the restitution procedure had not been completed for many years, without any due justification. 2. The applicant’s father (who died in 2012 and was succeeded by the applicant) was among the heirs of K.Y. After at first only some of the heirs obtained the restitution of several plots of land, in 1997 the remaining ones brought proceedings and, in a final judgment of the Supreme Court of Cassation of 27 September 2002, secured judicial recognition that all the heirs were entitled to the restitution of all but two of the plots at issue. However, for many years the competent body, the Sliven agriculture department, refused to comply with the above-mentioned judgment, maintaining that it was unable to identify the two plots excluded from restitution; they had been described with their pre-nationalisation boundaries, whereas the existing plots that were subject to restitution had different boundaries and specifications. The department thus considered that the heirs needed to reach a settlement as to the land to be excluded. It was only on 24 October 2016 that the department took a decision acknowledging that all the heirs of K.Y. were entitled to restitution; that decision, which was not preceded by a settlement among the heirs, became enforceable on 18 July 2017, after being amended by the courts (for further details, see paragraph 11 below). There are indications that even after the decision at issue, the cadastral plans necessary to conclude the restitution procedure were not issued with regard to some of the plots. In accordance with his share of the inheritance, the applicant is entitled to the restitution of 6,000 square metres of land.

Outcome for Article 6: violation