Lawyer Christos Nikoloutsopoulos, a key witness in the alleged blackmail of former Culture Ministry general secretary Christos Zachopoulos, finally began his deposition before a magistrate yesterday after several weeks of delay.

Nikoloutsopoulos faces blackmail charges after accompanying Zachopoulos’s assistant, Evi Tsekou, to meetings with journalists during which her affair with the public official was discussed.

It is also alleged that Tsekou offered a video tape or DVD of the couple having sex. Nikoloutsopoulos is alleged to have asked for money from the journalists in return for the footage but he denies the charge.

The lawyer’s deposition was delayed because he checked into a hospital in January suffering from depression and doctors only gave him the all-clear to face questioning recently.