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AUSTRALIA: SACKED MINISTER OUT OF HOSPITAL November 21, 2006
Zainab Osman
(SomaliNet) Former NSW Labor MP and minister Milton Orkopoulos has been discharged from hospital one week after an apparent suicide attempt. The sacked NSW Aboriginal affairs minister, who is facing drug and child sex charges, was rushed to Newcastle's Mater Misericordiae Hospital in a serious condition.
The 49-year-old was found slumped at the wheel of his car in Charlestown. A hospital spokeswoman today said Mr. Orkopoulos had been discharged from the hospital but would not say when he was released. She also would not indicate Mr. Orkopoulos' condition.
He resigned from parliament last week after being arrested and charged last week with supplying drugs to two teenage boys, and using government funds to pay one of them for sex.
Since being sacked from cabinet and thrown out of the Labor Party, Mr. Orkopoulos had almost constantly been shadowed by reporters and camera crews. Mr. Orkopoulos' family blamed the media for his hospitalization, saying he was "hounded by the press''. He had declared he was innocent of the charges against him and was free on $20,000 bail.