FOURTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 51081/17 Bogdan Zhelev BOGDANOV and O thers against Bulgaria

(s ee appended table)

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 8 April 2021 as a Committee composed of:

Armen Harutyunyan, President, Jolien Schukking , Ana Maria Guerra Martins, judges,

and Viktoriya Maradudina , Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 11 July 2017 ,

Having regard to the formal declaration s accepting a friendly settlement of the case,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

The list of the applicant s is set out in the appended table. The applicants are Bulgarian nationals.

The applicants’ complaints under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 and Article 13 of the Convention, about the excessive duration of proceedings concerning the restitution of agricultural land previously owned by an ancestor of theirs and the prolonged uncertainty for the applicants, were communicated to the Bulgarian Government (“the Government”).

Three applicants (see appended table below) died after the institution of the proceedings before the Court. Their heirs (see below) wished to pursue the application. The Government accepted the locus standi of the heirs in the proceedings.

The applicants (respectively their heirs) were represented by Ms S. Margaritova-Vuchkova , a lawyer practising in Sofia.

On 13 January and 1 March 2021, the Court received friendly-settlement declaration s signed by the parties. T he fourth applicant, Ms Toncheva , and respectively the heirs of the deceased applicants agreed to waive any further claims against Bulgaria in respect of the facts giving rise to this application, subject to an undertaking by the Government to pay EUR 8,300 (eight thousand and three hundred euros), to them jointly “to be distributed among the above-mentioned persons in accordance with their inheritance shares”. The amount indicated is to be converted into the currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable on the date of payment, and will be payable within three months from the date of notification of the Court’s decision. In the event of failure to pay this amount within the above-mentioned three ‑ month period, the Government undertook to pay simple interest on it, from the expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points.

The parties agreed that the payment above will constitute the final resolution of the case.

THE LAW

The Court firstly takes note of the information regarding the death of three of the applicants and the wish of their heirs to continue the proceedings in their stead, as well as of the absence of an objection on the Government’s part to their standing. Therefore, the Court considers that the heirs of Mr Bogdanov, Ms Sagaeva and Ms Dimitrova, as indicated in the table below, have a legitimate interest in pursuing the application.

The Court then takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and the Protocols thereto and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the application.

In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Decides that the heirs of Bogdan Zhelev Bogdanov, Marina Zheleva Sagaeva and Radka Zheleva Dimitrova have locus standi in the proceedings;

Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 39 of the Convention .

Done in English and notified in writing on 29 April 2021 .

Viktoriya Maradudina Armen Harutyunyan Acting Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

No.

Applicant’s (heir’s) name

Year of birth of the applicant

Place of residence of the applicant

Bogdan Zhelev BOGDANOV

(passed away on 20 July 2019, heirs Irina Peeva Bogdanova , Zhelyu Bogdanov Bogdanov and Stanislav Bogdanov Bogdanov)

1925Burgas

Marina Zheleva SAGAEVA

(passed away on 6 August 2019, heirs Konstantin Lyubomirov Sagaev and Zhelyaz Lyubomirov Sagaev )

1922Burgas

Radka Zheleva DIMITROVA

(passed away on 2 February 2021, heir Elmira Nikolova Bancheva )

1928Nesebar

Mariya Hristova TONCHEVA

1954Burgas