The trial against Yordan Lechkov, football legend and former Mayor of Sliven, was postponed Monday by the Sliven District Court.

The new date is October 4. Judge Yanitsa Sabeva grounded her rule on the request on the part of defendant who asked for more time to find a defense lawyer since his own attorney has retired.

This is the first trial in a series of other ones against the ex-Mayor to be handled by the Court in Sliven. Until now, the cases were tried in other courts because of the widespread practice of self-withdrawals of Sliven magistrates.

Plamen Stefanov, Monitoring Prosecutor in the case, informs that the charge is abuse of power. While in office as Mayor, the defendant has ordered a school principal to stop a public tender for repairs of the school building and hire a particular company to execute them.

If proven guilty, Lechkov is facing anywhere between 3 and 10 years behind bars and a fine of BGN 3 000 – 5 000, along with being banned from holding any State or public office.

There are currently five different cases against him at different stages and one not-guilty verdict.

Yordan Lechkov, currently also a Vice President of the Bulgarian Football Federation, was a key member of the historically best Bulgarian national football team, who went on to grab the fourth place at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the USA.

At the local elections in October, Lechkov, endorsed by the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, ran for a second term in office, but was defeated by Socialist Kolio Milev.