Simeon Saxe-Coburg, the former child monarch ousted from Bulgaria aged nine, who returned to Bulgaria and won the Parliament elections in 2001, could face litigation with the Bulgarian state over forests have been restituted to him as the head of the former royal family.

In 2003, during Saxe-Coburg's term as prime minister, Parliament decided to return the assets of the former royal family, seized by the Communist regime in 1946. It was later alleged that during the restitution, about 452ha of forests near the town of Samokov were transferred to the former royal family without any grounds for it.

During question time in Parliament on September 11, Prime Mnister Boiko Borissov said that a Government working group was examining the issue and present its conclusions and recommendations by September 30.

Bulgarian prosecutors said as far back as January 2008 that there were suspicions that the former royal family might have been re-imbursed twice for the loss of the same assets, but requests to cancel one of the restitution acts have been rejected by the local authorities in Samokov. After a number of appeals, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that the only way for the Bulgarian state to get back the land would be to file a civil suit against Saxe-Coburg.

Whether the Cabinet will sue Saxe-Coburg and his family or file a lawsuit in an administrative court to declare one of the restitution orders invalid, the Government would do its utmost to ensure that the state got back its property, Borissov said.

A spokesperson for Saxe-Coburg said that the former prime minister was counting on experts to ascertain the facts and whether there was indeed a problem, Dnevnik daily said. At the same time, there were more important problems faced by the Bulgarian society than the restitution of the assets of the former royal family, which was turned into a political issue by Saxe-Coburg's opponents, the statement said.

The party Saxe-Coburg founded was part of the coalitions that governed Bulgaria in 2001/09, but failed to make it into Parliament at the July general elections. Borissov, who was never a member of the party, shot to prominence after his appointment as chief secretary of the Interior Ministry during Saxe-Coburg's term as prime minister. He was earlier a bodyguard for Saxe-Coburg when the former king returned to Bulgaria.