site.btaSerbia Orders Return of Seized Bulgarian Books After Three-Year Dispute

Serbia’s Customs Administration ordered the return of Bulgarian books seized from journalist and GLAS Association Chair Aleksandar Dimitrov, ending a three-year administrative procedure, Dimitrov said on Friday.

The case dates to August 9, 2023, when Dimitrov was returning to Bosilegrad from Bulgaria. At the Ribarci Border Crossing, he was ordered to take seven books back to Bulgaria, including three copies of Elegy for the Kraishte: The Fate of the Bulgarians in the Western Outlands by former Bulgarian Consul General in Nis Edvin Sugarev. When Dimitrov refused, the books were seized.

After two appeals lodged through a lawyer, the Customs Administration of the Republic of Serbia annulled the Ribarci customs office’s decision on March 27, 2026, and ordered the books returned to their owner. Dimitrov received them back on June 28. The decision also requires the Customs Administration to pay his legal costs of RSD 180,000, just over EUR 1,500.

The seizure of Sugarev’s book at the border drew widespread media attention in Bulgaria, particularly because it followed a similar case on July 2, 2023. In that incident, 53 copies of Elegy for the Kraishte: The Fate of the Bulgarians in the Western Outlands were stopped at the border, and Boycho Dimitrov, who was carrying them, was ordered to take them back to Bulgaria.

On November 8 that year, 23 copies of the same book were seized during a search of the Bosilegrad Cultural Information Centre, carried out under an order from the High Court in Vranje, Southern Serbia. The same day, Serbian Border Police at the Ribarci Border Crossing prevented a group travelling from Bulgaria from entering Serbia for the book’s presentation in Bosilegrad. The group included Sugarev. The seized books were eventually returned to the Bosilegrad Cultural Information Centre following the intervention of then-President Rumen Radev.