The opposition New Democracy party yesterday accused the ruling Socialist party’s general secretary of cowardice after it emerged that Costas Laliotis’s defense lawyer deferred, on a false pretext, the court hearing of a 9-million-euro defamation suit brought against the former minister by three ND deputies.

“When (Laliotis) slanders ND officials at will and without backup evidence, he is the first to appear on television and in court, while now, as a defendant, he is hiding,” Savvas Tsitouridis, one of the three, told Kathimerini. Laliotis was sued for defamation after accusing the three of criticizing his handling of the bungled National Land Register project due to their “close cooperation with financial interests.”

Laliotis’s lawyer, Sotiris Felios, had the Thursday trial deferred, claiming he would be in the USA at the time. Felios was spotted on Thursday in a coffee shop near the courts.