SUPPORT OUR JOURNALISM: Please consider donating to keep our website running and free for all - thank you!

Other

Crown Prince Alexander prepares to sue Serbia

Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia and Yugoslavia is preparing to sue Serbia after a request of his family to regain the palace complex in Dedinje has been denied by the Agency for Restitution. He will continue to fight for his inheritance, though he believes it will be hard to get it.

“We are waiting to get back what was taken from us with illegal (Edvard) Kardelj’s order from 1947. We have good lawyers. If

Crown Prince Alexander (center) in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Crown Prince Alexander (center) in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons

we do not find understanding within our justice system, there is nothing else but to turn to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Our justice system must have a hearing for human rights and democracy when it comes to Karadjordjevic family. I believe that the state will find a good solution for us”, Crown Prince Alexander said.

The Palace complex in Dedinje includes the Royal and White Palace and an estate of 135 hectares and was not previously under restitution because it has been declared as a cultural monument.

Crown Prince Alexander was born in 1945 as the son of King Peter II and his wife, Alexandra of Greece. He legally held the title “Crown Prince” in the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia for the first four-and-a-half months of his life, from his birth until his father’s deposition by the Communist Parliament of Yugoslavia in late November of the same year. He was born and raised in the United Kingdom and is known to enjoy a close relationship with his relatives in the British royal family. His godfather was King George VI and his godmother is Her Majesty the Queen.

In 1947 almost his entire family was deprived of Yugoslavian citizenship and their property was confiscated. in 2001 the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia passed legislation conferring citizenship on the family and most of the property that had been stripped from them was returned, except for, most notably, the Dedinje royal compound.