State sentenced to pay over BGN 450,000 to heirs of a victim of "Midzhu"r factory explosion

Nearly 10 years after the explosion at the Midzhur factory in Gorni Lom, the state has been sentenced to pay an indemnity of 150,000 BGN to each of the three heirs of one of the victims - M. Angelova, as well as prejudgment interest accruing from the day of the incident.

The decision of the Supreme Administrative Court is final. The highest judicial instance ordered the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Environment and Water to jointly and severally pay the compensation for non-pecuniary damages caused to the relatives of M. Angelova.

The case was initiated last year on a cassation appeal by three heirs against a decision of the Vidin Administrative Court, which dismissed their claims under Article 1, paragraph 1 of the Law on Compensation for Damages against the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Environment and Water to pay each of them compensation for non-pecuniary damages caused by the death of their wife, mother and daughter M. Angelova, as a result of unlawful inaction by authorities and officials.

According to the claimants, the Council of Ministers failed to take the necessary measures to discontinue the dismantling 1.6 million Greek anti-personnel landmines imported from Greece into Bulgarian territory after they were notified on 6 July 2008 of a request for intervention by four non-governmental organisations.

According to the contract concluded, the Bulgarian company "Videx" AD undertook to disarm and safely dispose of the anti-personnel landmines according to the STANAG 4518 standard, using the "melting technology" method. The terms 'disarmament' or 'demilitarisation' in the contract were intended to mean the complete and safe destruction of the mines, including the explosive and detonator.

The Supreme Court judges held that the transfer of the anti-personnel mines under the contract between Akmon SA and Videx SA violated the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (Ottawa Convention).

The Convention allows transfer for the purpose of destroying anti-personnel mines, but not for the purpose of being neutralised in any other way.

The competent inter-agency commission should not have allowed the deal. Videx should not have been licensed, the court reasoned.

The court held that the terms of the contract were incompatible with the state's international obligations. According to the clear prescriptions of the international treaty, states must destroy, not dispose of, landmines.

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