Sofia City Court adjourned Friday the trial against former Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov over allowing illegal surveillance while he was in office.

It was the third time in a week Tsvetanov was to appear before court on three separate cases.

The last trial against him was postponed after the lawyer of another defendant facing the same charges, Tsvetan Ivanov (the head of a former surveillance unit with the Interior Ministry), filed a request that the court's sitting be held on another day, as Ivanov was to undergo hemodialysis on Friday and could not attend the session.

Friday's decision to adjourn the trial against Tsvetanov came after he was found guilty and sentenced to four years of imprisonment in a separate case.

He was convicted over allegedly blocking surveillance procedures started against Orlin Todorov, the former head of the Interior Ministry's Chief Directorate Combating Organized Crime (GBDOP) in the city of Veliko Tarnovo.

His lawyers have said the ruling will be appealed.

Earlier Sofia City Court acquitted Tsvetanov of large-scale embezzlement from the Interior Ministry's budget at the time when he headed the portfolio.

Court is to convene again on for the trial, which is held behind closed doors, on July 3.