The health of former Culture Ministry General Secretary Christos Zachopoulos has shown signs of improvement in recent days, sources said yesterday, as a magistrate prepares to question several key figures in the case again.

Zachopoulos is spending his 14th day in the intensive-care unit of Evangelismos Hospital following his attempt to kill himself by jumping from the balcony of his fourth-floor apartment in Kolonaki, central Athens.

However, the ex-public official has begun opening his eyes and reacting to pain and noise, source said. Doctors are hopeful that these are signs he will make a full recovery.

Zachopoulos broke his legs, arms, ribs and shoulder in the fall but a CAT scan has revealed that his spine was not damaged.

Doctors have gradually begun disconnecting equipment that is helping Zachopoulos to breathe as they fear the onset of an infection.

The magistrate investigating the alleged blackmail of the former official is set to requestion Zachopoulos’s assistant at the ministry, Evi Tsekou. During the first round of questioning, Tsekou denied having an affair with the ex-civil servant but the appearance of a DVD since then that allegedly shows the pair engaged in sexual activity has forced her to rethink her testimony.

The magistrate is also likely to requestion the head of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis’s press office, Yiannis Andrianos, who said he was given the DVD by a journalist, whose identity he has refused to reveal. Sources said the footage on the DVD has been edited and indicates that it was probably filmed from a tiny camera that had been hidden in Tsekou’s handbag. The magistrate will clearly be keen to find out what has happened to the footage that has been cut from the DVD.