The Liechtenstein family has filed a lawsuit against the Czech Republic, seeking the return of real estate

Prague - The Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation has filed lawsuits with 26 Czech district courts, requesting the return of property that it claims is being unlawfully used by the Czech state. Media representatives of the foundation announced this today. The lawsuits follow pre-litigation demands filed by the foundation in early December. The Liechtenstein princely family asserts that the Czech state unlawfully confiscated the property under Beneš decrees after 1945. The Office for State Representation in Property Affairs (ÚZSVM) does not yet have information on the lawsuits, but previously found the demands for the return of property to be unfounded.

The value of the property that the Liechtensteins are requesting is not specified. Hospodářské noviny reported in December that it concerns approximately 60,000 hectares of predominantly forested land.

"The lawsuits only concern properties for which the state is listed as the owner in the land register," stated the foundation's media representatives in a press release. According to them, the foundation is not seeking land belonging to regions, municipalities, or private individuals, nor is it pursuing land that, while used by the Czech state, has highway infrastructure on it.

The foundation had to file the lawsuits by the end of the year if it wished to claim the property. The Civil Code has recently shortened the deadlines for making claims. Legal representatives of the foundation indicated that they see the lawsuit as a last resort after attempts to resolve the matter amicably failed and the Czech state did not respond to the pre-litigation demands submitted about two weeks ago.

ÚZSVM regards the demands for the return of property as unfounded. "We maintain a constant legal position that this is property owned by the Czech Republic, which its legal predecessor acquired based on its confiscation according to the decree of the President of the Republic No. 12/1945 Coll. We are not aware of any legally relevant reasons that would challenge this fact," wrote the office's spokesperson Radek Ležatka to ČTK today.

In the lawsuit, the foundation requests that the court order the Czech Republic to vacate the properties that, according to the foundation, have been continuously in its ownership and that the Czech state is allegedly using illegally. They also point out that the existing judicial jurisprudence in restitution cases cannot be applied to this matter, as the case of the Liechtenstein property is, in their view, legally specific.

According to Czechoslovak courts, Prince Franz Joseph II of Liechtenstein declared himself as of German nationality in the 1930s, and therefore his property was forfeited to the state under the Beneš decrees. However, the foundation argues that he was a citizen of Liechtenstein, which remained neutral during World War II. It is, according to them, a gross distortion of historical facts and Czech and international law to consider such a foreigner a German due to the confiscation of his property.

The Office for State Representation in Property Affairs is currently involved in two disputes with the princely family, concerning property in Říčany and Plumlov in the Prostějov region.

The dispute between the Czech state and the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation over the ownership of 600 hectares of forest near Říčany in Central Bohemia has been before the Constitutional Court since last year. The foundation filed a constitutional complaint after failing to succeed at the Supreme Court with a appeal against the lower court's decisions regarding the non-return of the land. The Ministry of Finance stated in early December that a response to the foundation's pre-litigation demands must wait for the outcome of the Constitutional Court's proceedings.

The Czech state and Liechtenstein have been historically connected for centuries. The wealthy Liechtenstein family was among the richest nobility in the country, particularly in Moravia. They owned extensive properties, including the Lednice-Valtice area, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. However, they lost a significant portion of their properties in the territory of former Czechoslovakia due to land reforms after World War I, and the remaining properties were confiscated after World War II based on the Beneš decrees. The Liechtensteins were considered collaborators by the authorities at that time. However, historians argue that the evidence of their collaboration with the Nazis is questionable.

The application of the decrees to the property of the Liechtensteins has led to a prolonged dispute between the Czech Republic and Liechtenstein. As a result, the two countries established diplomatic relations only in September 2009.