The lawyer at the center of the Zachopoulos inquiry failed to appear in court yesterday as the wife of Christos Nikoloutsopoulos presented medical documents to a magistrate purportedly showing that the attorney was not well enough to face questioning.

Nikoloutsopoulos has been in hospital since last month after doctors diagnosed him to be suffering from depression and suicidal tendencies.

He is accused of accompanying former Culture Ministry employee Evi Tsekou to meetings with representatives of two media outlets and trying to sell them a DVD of Tsekou having sex with her boss, the ministry’s former general secretary Christos Zachopoulos.

Nikoloutsopoulos’s testimony is considered vital to the investigation and the court is now expected to appoint medical experts to examine him and determine whether a magistrate can quiz him.

Meanwhile, Nikoloutsopoulos’s lawyer Makis Tzifras resigned from defending his colleague, citing a “lack of understanding” between the two men.